Breaking the Curse
by FantasyBladeAncient
Summary: When Regina admits to being the evil queen after being injured by an escaped convict from Emma's past, Emma reunites with her parents and must use newly discovered magic powers to restore her people's memories and liberate FTL from a troll army.
1. Prologue

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Once Upon A Time or ABC.

Sweat poured down Big Jim's face as he and the other two men climbed through the tunnels. They had worked in secret for over a year, carefully digging this tunnel, detailing every part of their escape. The attempt wasn't supposed to be made for another month, when half the security guards were transferred to the new super-max facility they had just finished building and the replacements were still getting used to the place. They'd had to scrap that plan, however, when they'd learned that the prison was transferring two of them to the new facility as well. The two that had received life sentences without the possibility of parole. The third was to remain here, and had another forty years before he was eligible for parole. Big Jim could tell that the third man wasn't thrilled about it, but knew that the other two would kill him rather than blow the only chance they had to escape. There really was no honor among thieves.

He wasn't always this way. Once, he'd had a wife, a good job, and a kid. Then the stupid economy blew-up and he was laid off while the jokers who had caused the mess in the first place either got bailed out by their paid-for-politicians or received multi-million dollar golden parachutes while the poor who did nothing wrong were left to starve. Then his wife left him for one of those no good crooks, so he did what anyone would do under those circumstances. He put two bullets in the head of his wife and that no good millionaire, stole the two million dollars in cash he kept in his mansion and fled with his nine-month old son to Nevada.

He suspected the police would come after him, but took pains to make sure they wouldn't find him. He bought a doomsday house in the middle of nowhere from some paranoid anti-government guy with enough food for five years. He figured by that time, the world at large would have long forgotten his case and he could resurface with a new name and identity. His son wasn't old enough to remember his real name or his mother, so he would believe the story that his mother had died in childbirth.

He would have to alter his appearance and, sure, there was always a chance that MSNBC or CNN would air one of those hour-long segments on his case, so he would have to be vigilant. Before he could worry about that too much, however, someone found him, and to make matters worse, it wasn't the police or the FBI, it was some dame bounty hunter hired by his wife's sister.

So he went to jail, sentenced to life without the possibility of parole, when he should have been raising his son. He knew it was pointless going after his son now. He was living with his aunt who would have told him only bad things about his father if she told him anything at all and he had kind of liked her back when things were going well with his wife. Besides, he had no money and no way to provide for his son now. No, as much as it irked him, his son was better off with his aunt.

He was going to have his revenge, though. For the last four years, sitting in that jail cell, he thought of nothing else. He would get even with the bitch who'd stolen his life. He would have the head of Emma Swan.


	2. The Worst Day

Emma woke up with a start. She was having a weird dream. She dreamed that she was an infant and that her parents, played by Mary Margaret and David Nolan, were Snow White and Prince Charming. They were saying that their plan had failed. Then her mother said that they had to get her to the magic wardrobe, they had to give their daughter her best chance. Her father tearfully kissed her mother and went through the castle only to encounter several black clad armored soldiers. Prince Charming held his sword in one hand and, with her in the other began to fight them off. He managed to defeat several, but someone stabbed him as he got her to the wardrobe. He whispered tearfully, 'find us', before a soldier stabbed him again just as the magic wardrobe that would send her away from the evil queen's wrath enclosed her.

_All right, Emma_, she thinks. _You've definitely spent too much time around Henry. Get a grip. You need to stay grounded in this reality in order to help him._ She still didn't believe Henry's story, but some small part inside her was starting to wonder. She couldn't deny that the coincidences were beginning to pile up and part of her wanted it to be true. Mary Margaret had been so kind to her since she had gotten to town, she could definitely picture her as Snow White.

Mary had told her just the belief in the possibility of happy endings could be a powerful thing. She hadn't believed in happy endings ever since her adopted parents returned her to the foster system when they found out they were going to have their own child. For the first five years of her life, she had thought of her parents as kind people who loved her and were so sad to give her up and then she'd dug through the records in an attempt to find her own parents and discovered they had abandoned her on the side of the highway. Her real parents hadn't even cared enough to drop her off at a hospital or at the very least in front of a church and for the next twenty-three years she had pictured her parents as crack-headed stoners who couldn't be bothered to get an abortion and left her on the side of the road to die.

When Henry had said that her parents had actually fought to get her to safety, had risked their lives so she had a chance, for the first time in twenty-three years if only for a moment, she had believed in the possibility of happy endings and that her life could have one. Now her subconscious was putting Mary in the role of her mother and David in the role of her father. She really had to get that out of her head.

"Penny for your thoughts," Mary says.

Emma looks up to see Mary standing in the doorway, looking at her intently.

"It's nothing," Emma says.

"Come on, don't lie to me. We're friends, maybe I can help you."

"It's embarrassing really."

"Whatever it is, it can't be that bad."

"All right, Henry will probably tell you sooner or later."

"Tell me what?" Mary asks gently.

"I lied to you before," Emma answers.

"About what?" Mary asks, slightly shocked.

"When you asked me who Henry thought I was in the book and I said I wasn't in it," Emma answers.

"Why?" Mary asks, now becoming confused. "Who does he think you are?"

"Do you remember what happens near the end of the book?" Emma asks.

"Of course, Snow White has her child and has to send her away to safety, knowing that she'll return on her twenty-eighth birthday to break the curse," Mary answers confused, then understanding hits. "Her baby girl…He thinks you're my daughter?"

"Yep," Emma says, "which would make you his grandmother."

Mary is silent.

"Yeah, I know how you feel, which is why I lied," Emma explains. "The weird thing is the advice you've offered me is something I would expect a good mother to give. A part of me wants to believe the whole curse thing. That my parents didn't just abandon me to die, but loved me and risked their lives to get me to safety. In fact, I just had a really weird dream in which you were Snow White and had just given birth to me."

"Wait, what do you mean your parents left you to die?" Mary asks horrified.

"I was found on the side of the road in a basket," Emma tells her. "It was dumb-luck that I was found at all. Henry said I wasn't abandoned though, that that was where I came through from the Enchanted Forest."

Mary struggles for a moment trying to find something to say, but is saved by the ringing telephone.

"Mary Margaret," Mary answers. "Yes, she's here."

Emma watches Mary's face go white as she listens to whoever's on the phone. "Is Henry okay?" Mary asks anxiously, Emma's stomach turns to ice. "Yes, we'll be right there."

"What happened?" Emma asks.

"Henry's okay," Mary answers. "At least he's okay physically. There was some kind of explosion at Regina's house. The entire house went up in flames. Fortunately, Henry was up early. He likes to stop by Granny's before school, but Regina was in the backyard, the blast knocked her unconscious and she has third degree burns over a third of her body. She's currently in the hospital about to undergo surgery."

"Do you know what her chances are?" Emma asks, fear in her gut. She never liked the woman, but she truly believes that she loves Henry and doesn't wish her dead even if Henry's story is true and she was an evil queen.

"The doctor said she only has a fifty-fifty chance of survival and even if she does wake-up there could be brain damage due to the force of the concussion."

"Let's go," Emma says, grabbing her coat and purse, not caring that she's still in her nightgown.

* * *

><p>Fifteen minutes later, they are rushing through the doors of the hospital toward the operating rooms where a very pale Henry is talking to Sheriff Graham.<p>

"Mom," Henry says, upon seeing Emma and rushes up to hug her.

"Hey, Henry," Emma says. "How are you holding up?"

"I don't want her to die," Henry says. "I know she cursed everyone in town, but she was never mean to me. She always bought me toys and took me to places and this past year I was so horrible to her. What if she dies, what if her last thought is that I hate her?"

At this point Dr. Whale comes out, which is convenient since Emma has no comforting words for Henry.

"How is she?" Emma asks.

"She's a very strong woman and I think she'll make it," Dr. Whale says," but some shrapnel lodged itself in her head, and we'll need to remove it, if she's to survive. There is a thirty percent chance that this operation could cause some brain damage."

His words, cut into Emma like steel and from the reactions of Mary and Henry, they're feeling the same way.

"She's asking for both you and Henry," Dr. Whale says. "Mary, I'm afraid you'll have to wait here. Hospital policy is only two visitors at one time."

"Of course," Mary says.

Emma and Henry follow Dr. Whale into the operating room.

"You'll have five minutes alone with her and then we will have to begin the operation," Dr. Whale tells them, "and whatever, you do, don't touch the patient, you could make her worse."

The two of them enter the room to find a weak-looking Regina laying there.

"Mom!" Henry cries out.

"Mom," Regina laughs weakly. "You haven't called me that for a while. All this time all I had to do was nearly die."

"I'm sorry," Henry says. "I'm sorry for thinking you were an evil queen."

"Don't be," Regina laughs. "You were right."

"Right about what?" Emma asks, confused.

"I am the evil queen in Henry's storybook," Regina laughs bitterly. "I sent everyone from the Enchanted Forest here just like he said. Mary is Snow White and David is King James."

"Okay," Emma says, slowly. Somehow, she can tell that Regina's not lying, so she must have already suffered some brain damage.

"I know what you're thinking 'she's already suffering from brain damage,'" Regina says. "I'm not, I know you won't believe me, but I am the evil Queen. I thought cursing everyone and sending them here would make me happy, but it didn't. I wasn't truly happy until you arrived, Henry. Believe whatever else you want about me, but I truly love you."

"I love you too mom," Henry cries.

"Funny how being on your deathbed causes you to re-examine your life," Regina says, handing Emma a piece of paper. "If you don't believe me, you can go to town and check my back records. David Nolan doesn't exist. I didn't bother to give King James an alternate identity when I cast my curse, which is why he has no memory of anything. He has no past in this reality. You can check my computer in town hall with this information. I made a whole fake identity for him including ID, wedding photos, the works. His supposed wife 'Kathryn' is nothing more than a paid actor. You'll find records of me depositing a hundred thousand dollars in her bank account on the night David woke up."

"All right," Emma says stunned at the direction this conversation is taking.

"I'm honestly not sure how to lift the curse or I'd tell you," Regina says, beginning to cough. "Maybe it'd buy me some points with whatever power is beyond this life."

"One more thing," Regina says, turning to Emma. "Promise me if anything happens to me, you won't send Henry to foster care. I've seen how he looks up to you and how much you've gotten through to him when I couldn't. Promise me you'll take care of him and be his mother."

Emma swallows hard and nods. "I promise," she says gravely.

Dr. Whale and his surgical team walk in, in full scrubs. "We have to begin the surgery," he says. "It'd be best if you went home and got some rest. When we're done with the operation we'll have to put her in a medically induced coma for four days to a week to minimize the risk of brain damage."

Dr. Whale ushers the two of them out, so they can begin the surgery.


	3. Coming Home

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I don't live in Maine and I'm not sure if they'll be having an election for governor next year, but for the purposes of this story pretend, they will.

"So how is she?" Mary asks when Emma and Henry re-enter the waiting room.

"The doctor says that she has an excellent chance of recovery, but there is a risk of brain damage," Emma answers, handing Henry some money. "Henry, can you get us some coffee?"

"You mean can I go off for a few minutes so you can talk in private?" Henry asks. "Sure thing."

As soon as Henry walks off, Emma turns to Mary a concerned look on her face.

"What is it?" Mary asks.

"She's already suffered some brain damage," Emma admits. "She now thinks that she is the evil queen in Henry's story."

"What?" Mary asks, startled. "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure she now believes she is the evil queen," Emma says, "but I'm not sure this curse business is absolute nonsense anymore. It sounds crazy, but the coincidences just keep piling up."

"What do you mean?" Mary asks.

"Well the book did say that Snow White's daughter was named Emma and that she would return on her twenty-eighth birthday," Emma begins.

"Wait, you mean the night you came to Storybrooke was your twenty-eighth birthday?" Mary asks.

"Yes," Emma says. "What are the odds that the baby in the book you gave him would have the same name as his birth mother, and that he would decide to go looking for me on my twenty-eighth birthday? Then there's the fact that you always put cinnamon on your food and cinnamon has been my favorite for as long as I can remember," Emma continues. "And you said it yourself ever since you met me you felt some connection to me and when you read to that coma patient, he woke up."

"Yes, but he's married," Mary says, and then notices Emma's look of discomfort. "What is it?"

"According to Regina, he's not married, and David Nolan's not his real name," Emma says. "Regina says she paid Kathryn to pretend to be his wife."

"WHAT!" Mary shouts, causing everyone to glance in her direction. She lowers her voice. "But why would she do that?"

"I don't know," Emma says. "First I'll have to check to see if it's true. If it is, then there may be a reason for it, but I can't really come up with one without knowing more."

"But you can't really believe that I'm Snow White," Mary says. "It's preposterous. I'm not nearly pretty enough or kind enough."

Emma stares at Mary in disbelief. "Have you looked at yourself in the mirror?" Emma asks. "You're gorgeous and as for kindness, you're the kindest person I've ever met. What other person would take a complete stranger into their home when they needed help? I think you're selling yourself short."

Mary is about to respond to this, when Sherriff Graham comes over, looking really worried.

"What is it?" Emma asks.

"The fire chief just got done inspecting the mayor's house," Graham says. "They found what appears to be a crudely made bomb and a can of accelerant near the gas line."

"What!" Mary and Emma shout at the same time.

"This was no accident," Graham says. "Someone meant for that house to go up."

"Someone wanted the mayor dead?" Emma asks, furious.

"It looks that way," Graham says. "I know the mayor can be unpleasant, but I never thought anyone in this town held that much of a grudge against her."

"My kid was in that house," Emma says, coldly, "and Regina may have tried to make my life a living hell since I arrived here, but she certainly didn't deserve this."

"Do you have any suspects?" Mary asks.

"No, not yet," Graham says. "I've requested help from the state troopers. They're going to be putting a twenty-four hour guard around Regina and until we've caught this guy, I want Henry protected too. I'm putting you in charge of that. I assume you're going to be taking care of him until Regina recovers."

"Sure no problem," Emma says, calling for Henry.

"Are you two done talking yet?" Henry asks, coming back over.

"Yeah," Emma says. "Let's go home."

* * *

><p>After taking Henry home, and arranging for Ruby to watch him for a bit with one of the state troopers acting as escort, Mary and Emma head to City Hall to meet with Sheriff Graham. Emma decides to tell the sheriff everything Regina told her, since it may be a possible motive for the attack.<p>

First, Emma tells the sheriff that Regina told her that she was the evil queen in the storybook, but that she had written it off as possible confusion from the blast. He agrees that was possible. Then Emma logs onto the mayor's computer using the information Regina had given her. She quickly discovers that what Regina had told her about Kathryn and David Nolan is true.

"I don't believe it," Mary says. "Why would Regina pay someone a hundred thousand dollars to pretend to be the wife of someone who just woke up from a coma?"

"I don't know," Sheriff Graham replies. "This is completely out of character for Regina. I know she can be...driven, but I don't know how this furthers her goals in any way."

_Only if Henry's story is true, Mary is Snow White, and David is Prince Charming and she's trying to keep them apart_, Emma thinks. She pushes the thought away, trying to come up with something... anything rational. "Are you sure he's not in any missing person's database?"

"I'm sure," Sherriff Graham says. "I may not be that computer savvy, but I did send his picture and fingerprints to the state police and the FBI and they came up empty. No criminal record, no missing persons report, no driver's license, nothing. It's as if he doesn't exist."

"Maybe he saw the mayor doing something illegal and she put him in the coma," Mary says, trying to grasp at something that makes sense.

"I doubt it," Emma says. "The mayor's smart. If this guy had anything on her, she would have probably left him in a coma in another city."

"Well there is one way to get to the truth. Ask Kathryn," Mary says, hatred in her voice.

The tone of her voice surprises Emma, who, in the short time she had known her, had never known Mary to be anything but kind. However, considering she had only known her for a few weeks, it was hardly a surprise for her to encounter new facets of her friend's personality. Emma tries to push the possibility that Mary hates Kathryn because she and David are Snow White and Prince Charming as far from her mind as possible.

* * *

><p>Fifteen minutes later the three of them are sitting on the couch in the home of David and Kathryn Nolan. If that's who the really are.<p>

"What brings you here?" David asks.

"You heard about the explosion of Mayor Mills' house, I presume?" Sheriff Graham replies.

"Of course," David says. "It was a terrible tragedy. Do you have any leads?"

"We have one, which is why we're here," Emma says, noticing the way Kathryn fidgets uncomfortably in her seat.

"Really?" David asks in surprise.

"Yes," Sheriff Graham answers. "There's no easy way to say this, so I'll just say it. Kathryn isn't your wife. She is a paid actor hired by the mayor."

"What," David yells in shock and turns to Kathryn, whose face has turned white, "but why?"

"That's what we're hoping to find out," Mary says.

"We're also here to determine whether Kathryn is in any way involved," Emma continues.

"Wait," Kathryn says becoming even paler, "you can't think I was involved in trying to kill the mayor!"

"We have to consider it a possibility," Sheriff Graham answers, "unless you can explain why the mayor hired you to pretend to be David's wife."

"Very well," Kathryn says with a sigh, turning to David. "Your real name is John Templeton. You were an executive for a small accounting firm."

"Why did Regina hire you?" David—John asks.

"Well that's complicated," Kathryn says. "Your real wife and newborn daughter died in a car crash while you were at work."

"What?" John says his face going pale.

"After they died, you blamed yourself. You were supposed to be with them that day, but decided to go to work to finish a project," Kathryn continues, with no real compassion in her voice. "You started to self-destruct and managed to get yourself fired. You started doing hard drugs, crystal meth, heroin, and the like to try to forget your pain."

"And that's how I ended up in the coma?" John asks.

"I'm getting to that," Kathryn says. "Anyway, your best friend, who was a researcher at a medical firm, tried to help you get clean, but it backfired when you stole his key-card and broke into his lab looking for drugs. You found some test drugs they were using to try to engineer a cure for Alzheimer's, but the drugs you stole were from a failed batch that destroyed neural memory pathway thingies—I'm not a doctor—and put you in a coma.

"From what the researchers at the company were able to determine, the chances of you waking up were next to zero. They were able to determine that if you did wake up, you would most likely be able to function and form new memories, but any memories you had before you took the drug would be gone. Like a computer hard drive wiped with a DOD approved memory-erasing device."

"That still doesn't explain how Regina got involved in this," Emma says, as the group absorbs her words.

"Regina is planning on running for governor next year," Kathryn explains, "and the medical firm involved in all this was her biggest supporter. If word of this accident got out, it would ruin the company and in turn ruin Regina's chances of becoming governor. This firm gave Regina the money to give to me. I was to play David's wife for two years, helping him get back on his feet and then gradually become so vile to him, that he would ask for a divorce."

"All this just to avoid ruining Regina's chances of become governor?" Mary asks. "How could you agree to this? Didn't it occur to you that eventually David or John would want to sleep with you that you would basically become a paid hooker playing with his emotions?"

"Hey the economy's rough," Kathryn says, defensively. "My father's business collapsed and I was faced with the prospect of losing everything I own and as men go, he doesn't look so bad. Better being with him then becoming homeless. Anyway he got the best end of the deal he goes from being a crack-head coma patient to being the husband of a beautiful woman."

Mary punches her in the nose, knocking her unconscious.

"Good one," Emma says.

"Thanks," Mary answers. "That felt really good for some reason."

"Trust me, if I weren't a gentleman I might have punched her out too," John says, trying to process everything that Kathryn just said. "But aren't you worried she'll press charges?"

"If I were her, I'd be more worried about the charges we could file against her," Graham replies. "If what she says is true, then both her, Regina, and the medical firm could be in a lot of trouble."

"I would like to avoid that, if possible," John says. "While I don't condone what they did, if it is true that I stole my friend's key-card and those drugs, I wouldn't want anyone to go to jail on my account."

"And I don't want Regina's reputation to be ruined either, not to mention the grief it would cause Henry," Sherriff Graham continues. "I'll investigate this quietly, if it's okay with the three of you. If the medical firm was behind the attempted murder of Regina, which I doubt, since it would run the risk of someone uncovering this plot, I'll have to go public. Otherwise, I'd like it to keep it between the three of us."

"I don't know," Mary says. "I think they deserve to pay."

"Please," John begs, taking Mary's hand, "for me."

"Okay," Mary says, looking into his eyes. "Emma?"

"I'll go along with whatever you decide," Emma answers reluctantly.

"Now I think we should wake Kathryn and get some more info about that medical firm," Graham says.


	4. Snow White's Return

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter contains some references to characters from the TV show _Fringe_ as part of Emma's back-story. It contains slight spoilers for the last aired episode of that show, so if you're a fan of that show and you haven't seen the last aired episode, consider yourself warned. Beyond that, no knowledge of _Fringe_ is necessary and I have no plans to bring the characters to Storybrooke as anything other than part of Emma's past. So on with the story.

Four days later, Henry was living in Mary's apartment. Emma had given Henry her room, over his objections, and she was sleeping on the couch. Emma didn't want Henry to know that the attack on Regina was pre-mediated, but since the attack was the biggest story in Storybrooke at least since she'd been living there, he found out about it in hours.

The investigation had stalled. Graham had investigated most of the people in town, but he was no closer to finding a suspect. He sent the bomb to the state crime lab and they did find some DNA on it. The lab was due to call in later today to see if they had a match to any known criminals on file, though Emma really didn't expect much.

On the John Templeton and Kathryn Nolan (whose real last name was Price) front. Upon waking up, Kathryn had immediately insisted on filing charges against Mary. John had replied that he could file charges against her for impersonating his wife. Upon hearing that, she immediately changed her mind and gave up everything she knew about the medical firm. Emma went upstate to the medical firm and after several hours of investigation, had managed to rule out anyone at the medical research company as suspects. She had also gave the firm a stern warning that she would be checking in on them from time to time to make sure they never did anything like this again.

John was now living at Granny's inn. Kathryn had paid for his room in exchange for him not pressing charges against her. John said he was attracted to Mary for some unknown reason, but told her he didn't want to pursue a relationship until he had a chance to process everything he had learned about his past.

_Well I could always tell him that what Kathryn told him was a lie too and he's actually the king of a fairy tale kingdom_, Emma thinks. After her conversation with Mary four days ago, Emma's head has been in a tailspin. She can't deny that there were several similarities between Storybrooke and Henry's storybook, but she also can't believe that she is really considering that Henry's story is true.

"Maybe we're both crazy," Emma mutters out-loud.

"You're not crazy," Henry says.

"Henry!" Emma exclaims. "How long were you standing there?"

"Awhile now," Henry says. "I know you were deep in thought. You looked as if you were finally considering that what I told you was true."

"I..." Emma says.

"I knew that it would take you longer than a few days to really accept what I told you," Henry says. "I just wanted you to keep your mind open, so you would see the truth."

"Um..." Emma stammers.

"But anyway, I now know how to break the curse," Henry says excitedly. "I had it all wrong before, I thought we had to defeat the evil queen, but that wasn't it. We have to redeem the evil queen, turn her good, so she'll break the curse willingly. I saw it on an episode of Power Rangers."

"Okay," Emma says, thinking it over. Even if the curse was complete nonsense, helping Henry and Regina reconnect could be a good thing.

Henry then takes out his book and points to the castle. "And then once it breaks, we'll all be transported back to the fairy tale world," he continues. "We'll live in this castle, and you'll be a princess. Maybe Regina could become a duchess or something. Oh, wait, you're my mother and you're a princess, does that make me a prince?"

"Henry..." Emma begins.

"Hey I wonder if the people will still have their memories of this world," Henry continues. "Do you think they'll bring computers and stuff over to that world with them? That would be weird, wouldn't it? I mean computers in a fairy tale?"

"Henry, listen..." Emma tries again, but Henry interrupts her once more.

"Maybe now that mom's, I mean my other mom's, heart is beginning to thaw, the curse could be weakening. We should start trying to bring people's memories back."

"Listen Henry, I know you think I'm the 'savior'," Emma says a little testily, grabbing the book from him, "but I can't just pick up this book, point to someone and say in a deep voice 'Snow White, I command the curse be lifted and that you remember who you really are.'"

As she says this, the book begins glowing, causing Emma to drop it in fright. The entire book begins glowing, the brightest gold Emma had ever seen, and then a beam of energy shoots into the other room where Mary Margaret is making breakfast and enters her body. The beam glows with blinding intensity forcing Emma and Henry to close their eyes. When they open them, they see that Mary's hair has grown to full-length and she is now dressed in a white nightgown. The same nightgown she had been wearing in Emma's dream.

_This can't be happening_, Emma thinks in a daze. _Any minute now, I am going to wake up in my bed and this will just be a weird dream._

"You did it," Henry says, running over to hug his mother. "You broke the curse."

"Where am I?" Snow White asks, looking around in confusion. "The last thing I remember was the queen casting her curse and James, where is James?"

"Mary?" Emma asks, breaking free of Henry's grasp.

"Mary?" Snow asks, still confused. "I recall being called that, but I can't remember why."

"This can't be happening," Emma says out-loud.

"I remember," Snow says, shaking off the confusion. "The queen's curse brought us here and I forgot who I was. I was Mary Margaret a school teacher." She turns to Emma, with eyes so full of love it makes Emma's heart stop. "My beautiful baby girl," she says, running to envelop Emma in a tight hug. "I knew you'd come for us."

"Um, yeah," Emma says, still in shock over what's happening.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Snow says, reluctantly breaking away from her daughter. "This world doesn't believe in magic, does it and you were having a hard time in believing in the curse, weren't you?"

"Yeah," Emma says sitting in the nearest chair. "This can't be happening. This just can't be happening."

"Mom, are you going to be okay?" Henry asks.

"Is everyone okay?" Mr. Gold asks, rushing into the house.

"Mr. Gold," Emma and Henry exclaim at the same time while Snow shouts, "Rumplestiltskin!" grabs a nearby umbrella and hits Mr. Gold over the head, knocking him unconscious.

"Mary!" Emma exclaims. "Why did you attack him?"

"Rumplestiltskin," Henry exclaims, "so that's who Mr. Gold is."

"Mary-Snow-Mom," Emma says not sure what she should call the woman who has just turned into a fairy tale princess and who is apparently her mother. "You can't just go around attacking people in this world, no matter who they were in the fairy tale world."

"But this is Rumplestiltskin, the most dangerous creature in all the realms," Snow says, before Ashley, Ruby, and Sean run into the apartment and interrupt her.

"Are you all right?" they ask in unison.

"Yeah, we're fine," Emma answers. "Why do you ask?"

"What do you mean?" Ruby demands. ""Didn't you see it? There was a giant gold flash of light from this building. It was visible to half the town."

"What happened to Mr. Gold?" Ashley asks.

"He rushed in to check on us and startled Mary," Emma answers. "She reflexively attacked him. No harm done."

"Speak for yourself," Mr. Gold grunts, getting up. "This is the second time this month I've been hit over the head, and I don't very much appreciate it."

Emma opens up her mouth to respond, but is interrupted by her phone ringing.

"This is Emma," she responds, then listens for a moment before her face turns white. "Are you sure?" another pause. "Okay, we'll be right there."

"What's going on?" Ashley asks.

"That was Graham," Emma answers. "The lab report just came back. The DNA profile on the suspect matches one of three prisoners that escaped from a Florida maximum security jail."

"Why would an escaped convict want to kill Regina?" Sean asks.

"They don't think he did," Emma says taking a deep breath. "The convict was a person I helped to catch. He killed his wife after she left him and abducted their infant son. He vowed revenge on me as they took him away, so the sheriff thinks his real target was Henry."

"Someone's trying to kill me?" Henry asks, scared. "Does that mean he'll try again?"

"I don't think so," Emma says. "The sheriff thinks he fled town after setting the bomb. If he knew his plan had failed, he'd probably have tried again by now."

"Well that's good," Sean says.

"Returning to our original topic of conversation," Mr. Gold interrupts. "What was that giant gold spire of light that came from the building? Why did Mary call me Rumplestiltskin and when did she grow all that hair?" he adds as he notices Mary's hair.

"It was Emma; she broke the curse on Snow White," Henry says.

"What?" Sean asks confused.

"Henry has this fantasy that everyone in town is a fairy tale character living under a curse with no memory of who they were," Ruby explains. "He thinks his adopted mother is the evil queen and Mary is Snow White."

"And I thought I had issues with my parents," Sean says. "So who does he think you are?"

"Little Red Riding Hood," Ruby says.

"Let me guess, with an evil stepmother and two spoiled stepsisters, he thinks I'm Cinderella," Ashley comments.

"Wait, does that make me a prince," Sean asks, "and is Emma her fairy godmother?"

"This is all very entertaining," Mr. Gold interrupts again, "but what was that flash of gold light?"

"Henry's science project," Emma says, thinking quickly. "He's working on a rescue flare for ships lost at sea. As for why Mary attacked you, the thing malfunctioned and startled her. Before it went off Henry was talking about the fairy tale curse and I think the light disoriented her."

"All right," Mr. Gold says. "Well if no one is in danger, I think I'll go put some ice on my head. Good day."

"Let me help you Mr. Gold," Ruby says and the two of them leave.

"And we really should be getting back to little Alexandra," Ashley says.

The two of them leave and Emma turns back to Henry and Mary-Snow-her mother. _Okay, this is going to get some taking used to_, she thinks.

"Why did you tell them that light was a science project?" Henry asks.

"Because we need to plan our next move," Emma says, collapsing onto the couch. "From the looks of it the curse was only lifted on Mary-Snow and I'm still trying to wrap my head around this whole curse being real. I need time to think."

"Emma, are you all right?" Snow asks, sitting next to her daughter and taking her hand. "I know from my memories of this world, that it is far from what my own was like and that your life has been far from perfect. But I want you to know that I'm proud of the woman you've become and that I love you."

That's when it really hits her. Henry's story is true. Fairy tale characters really do fill the town and this woman standing before her is her mother. She stares at her for several long minutes taking it all in.

"What is it?" Snow eventually asks.

"Henry was right," Emma says in disbelief. "You really are my mother."

"Yes I am," Snow answers.

As she comes to this realization, she breaks down crying. She hasn't really cried since she was five after her adopted parents returned her to the foster system and she found out that her birth parents abandoned her on the side of the road. Her mom—and the thought of finally having a mom was weird—just held onto her as she cried for what felt like forever.

"It's okay, sweetie. It's okay. I promise I'll never leave you again," Snow says trying to comfort her daughter. When Emma has finally cried herself out, Snow lets her go. "Do you want to talk about it?"

"I don't know where to begin. I had such a rough childhood," Emma says. "After the people who adopted me returned me to the system and I found out I was abandoned, I just closed down emotionally. I kept bouncing from foster home to foster home, changing schools every six months. I never managed to make friends and was always known as the freak new girl."

"Oh my poor baby," Snow says, listening to her story.

"I never let it bother me," Emma says. "I kept to myself and studied hard, vowing to one day make something of my life. When I was sixteen, they finally placed me with a woman in New York who agreed to keep me until I turned eighteen, so I was able to attend the same high school for two years. It was there I made my first real friends Olivia and her younger sister Rachel."

"Olivia was tough like me and had a troubled past," Emma says. "Come to think of it, she may have been like you in some respects. Her stepfather tried to kill her mother when she was twelve, but Olivia managed to kill him before she could succeed."

Snow gasps.

"Anyway their mother died of cancer when she was sixteen and someone close to her family took her in," Emma continues. "She never really said how they met; only that she was connected with her real father's work. She and her sister became my first real friends and helped me come out of my shell a little. That was when I met Kevin."

"Kevin?" Snow asks with interest.

"Kevin was the first man I loved," Emma says. "Come to think of it, he was the only man I ever really seriously dated."

"Is he my father?" Henry asks, startling Emma, who had forgotten he was there.

"Um...um..." Emma stammers. "Maybe I should finish telling this story later."

"Come on, I want to hear," Henry says eagerly.

"You may as well tell him," Snow nudges gently. "He has a right to know."

Emma sighs and opens her mouth to continue with her story when the door opens again and Regina walks in.


	5. The Evil Queen's Lament

"Regina," Emma says in surprise, "I thought you were supposed to be in the hospital."

Before Regina can answer, Snow grabs a knife from the lunch table and rushes toward her.

"You," Snow says with more venom in her voice than Emma thought she was capable of as she puts the knife against Regina's throat.

"Mary!" Emma shouts, still not having gotten used to calling her Snow or mom. "Put the knife down."

With Mary distracted, Regina knocks the knife out of her hand and then stares at her. She is wearing the same dress as the night she cast the curse on the fairy tale world. The fear she had in her gut ever since she woke up comes back to her. She remembers admitting to being the evil queen to her son and his birth mother. While she believed Emma would undoubtedly think that revelation was due to her injuries, she knew it would cement the beliefs of her young son.

She should have planned for this, should have realized that he would eventually notice that no one in town ever aged. That cursed Ashley was nine months pregnant for his entire life. How could she expect him not to notice that? Then, to top off her foolishness, she had given Emma the details on how she paid Kathryn to pretend to be that cursed James' wife.

Regina had no doubt that Emma would investigate that immediately and that stupid twit Kathryn would no doubt tell Emma the cover story she had given her so she would agree to be James' wife. If she investigated the medical firm, they would find everything Kathryn told her to be true. The power of the curse allowed her to modify the memories of people outside Storybrooke slightly. She couldn't do it often, though. Just often enough so that no one in the outside world got suspicious about a town where no one was born, died, aged, or left. Recently she had used it to start her run for governor.

Regina had to admit to herself that Snow's torment didn't really give her the sense of happiness she thought it would. After living in the town for seventeen years, she realized that she still wasn't truly happy. She looked at her life and wondered what would make her happy. Then it hit her, having a child. She couldn't get pregnant, of course. As long as she lived in the town, the same rules that bound the other people trapped in it also applied to her, the exception being that she and anyone traveling with her could leave the town, so she decided to adopt a child.

After considering it, she turned to Mr. Gold, who maintained business relations with people outside of town. She made a deal with him and he found her Henry. Then, for the first time since Snow White had ruined her life, she was truly happy. She tried so hard to be a good mother, taking him places, buying him toys. The first time he called her mom when he was little her heart melted. After that, she found herself being less mean to people. She spent less time at city hall making people's lives miserable and for a while, they were both happy.

Eventually though, he had noticed all the weird things about the town, and asked her about it. For the first time she panicked. She couldn't tell him the truth because he would hate her, so she said it was his imagination and put him in counseling hoping it would help. It didn't, so she made a decision. She would start running for governor. That would allow her to keep power over others and she would be out of Storybrooke in a world where the curse didn't exist and Henry could make real friends.

After she left, she didn't really know what would happen to the citizens of Storybrooke, nor did she care. Maybe Mr. Gold would become mayor and rule the town. Snow and James could even get back together for all she cared. She had gotten her revenge on them. She would still have her son and her happy ending while they lived on here cursed for the rest of eternity.

Before she could get too far along with that plan, however, Henry went digging for answers himself and found out that she had adopted him. After that, he no longer said he loved her or even called her mom. She responded by reverting to her mean old self, stabbing people in the back, threatening people, making people afraid of her. Looking back this was the wrong tack. It just pushed Henry further away.

Then he got that book, the one she had conjured of their true past and left in the care of Snow White, so that Snow would never truly forget that she was once a queen who had a husband and child. She had seen her and Mary for who they really were.

Then Henry found his birth mother. She had come to town and then tried to leave, only for some reason the spell that was supposed to keep the fairy tale characters in town had somehow misfired and caused her car to crash. This had happened once before, but Regina though she'd fixed it. Then Emma started to get more involved in Henry's life, even having the gall to ask Regina if she loved him. Of course she did. She responded by going to war with Emma, even going so far as to engineer Henry overhearing her calling him crazy, but that didn't work either, somehow Emma made up with him.

That more than anything troubled her. Here was a woman who had known her son for all of a week and she was able to fix a broken bond in a day when Regina hadn't in three years. Then, when she woke up in the hospital, she realized that he was alone with Emma and Mary for four days. What would happen if he decided he liked living with Emma? Worse, what would happen if Emma decided she liked living with him? She could file for custody and with the incriminating evidence, Regina had given her while feeling disoriented, she would most likely win. So, over the objections of the doctors, she had gotten dressed, slipped past the troopers assigned to guard her and rushed over to Mary's apartment.

While on the way, she noticed the beam of golden light and worried about what it meant. Now it seemed she was realizing her worst fears. Somehow, Snow was free of her curse and now knew who she really was.

"Snow," Regina says, afraid of her for the first time in her life. Not of her actually being able to kill her, but fear of her destroying whatever chance there was of fixing her relationship with her son. "I don't want any trouble. I've just come for my son."

"You think I'm going to let you near him, after what you've done?" Snow says, with venom in her voice. "You cursed me, nearly killed James, and kept us separated for twenty-eight years. You took the memories and the lives of everyone in our world and banished them here, where they were puppets for your every whim. It's your fault I never knew my daughter. That she grew up in a horrible orphanage believing her parents didn't love her, that we left her on the side of the road to die! If you think I'm going to let you anywhere near my grandson ever again, you've got another think coming."

"Your grandson?" Regina asks in utter confusion. "And what do you mean your daughter was raised in an orphanage? Everyone in the realms knew you were having a son."

That's when it hit her as if Snow had stabbed her in the heart with that knife. Mr. Gold said that she should know exactly who Emma was. Regina had investigated Emma. She knew that someone had found her on the side of the road twenty-eight years ago and no one knew who her parents were. Twenty-eight years, the same amount of time Storybrooke had been in existence. She had thought that Snow was having a boy, as did everyone else, never suspecting it was just a misdirection to protect the child.

"Emma is your daughter?" Regina asks in the smallest voice Snow has ever heard her use. "Henry is your grandson?"

Regina sinks to the ground in defeat. It is over. She has lost. She killed her father believing she could be happy in this world, but she was wrong. She killed the one thing left in that other world that she loved, and now she had lost the only thing in this world she loved, so she did something she had only done three times before in her life, she cried.

Snow was completely shocked by this turn of events. The woman who had hunted her for so long, who had ruined so much of her life was crying before her. She had thought Regina was a complete monster, a woman incapable of feeling emotion. To see her on her knees, crying her heart out over the loss of her son, made Snow realize for the first time she wasn't a soulless monster.

"It's okay, mom," Henry says, going over to his adopted mother. "Don't worry everything will be all right."

Regina looks up at her son in shock.

"Why are you comforting me?" Regina asks. "Everything you thought about me is true. I placed a curse on everyone in this town, trapping them here with no memory of who they were. I killed my own father, the only person who ever loved me. I deserve to die."

"Don't say that," Henry says. "You were a good mother to me, you never treated me badly. Sure, you did evil things, but you can change. I'm sure everyone will forgive you, right grandma?"

"Um..." Snow says, at a loss for words. She remembers her last words to the queen in her world, when she was holding her wounded husband, certain that she was going to lose him. She always thought that someday someone would kill the evil queen, but by a quirk of fate, she had ended up raising her daughter's son and since she remembered her life as Mary Margaret, even though fog veiled a lot of it, she knew that Regina was a good mother to the boy.

"Well?" Henry asks.

"You're asking me to forgive the woman who ruined my life, who ruined your mother's life," Snow says to Henry. "This isn't something easily done."

Regina opens her mouth to respond, but instead starts gasping for air.

"Are you okay?" Emma asks concerned.

"I, I can't breathe," Regina manages to stammer before she collapses to the ground and passes out.

"Mom!" Henry yells.

Emma runs over to her, checks for a pulse and to her relief, finds one. She takes out her cell phone to dial 911 when Dr. Whale, two state troopers, and two paramedics burst in.

"Regina," Dr. Whale exclaims, rushing over to examine her.

"Dr. Whale," Emma says. "How did you know to come here?"

"After I got back from my lunch break, one of my incompetent staff told me that he let her leave the hospital to pick up her son," Dr. Whale says in disgust as he hooks Regina up to an oxygen tank from the paramedics' kit. "She just woke up from surgery after major trauma to both her head and body. I'm amazed she got this far."

"Is she going to be okay?" Henry asks in concern.

"I believe so," Dr. Whale says as the paramedics load her on to a stretcher. "Provided my idiot staff and these inattentive guards who are supposed to be protecting her don't let her leave the hospital again. You should be able to visit her tomorrow."

"Thanks," Emma says.

"By the way," Dr. Whale adds, turning to Snow, "I love what you did with you hair. How did it grow so long, so fast or is it a wig?"

Snow opens her mouth to respond, but Emma interrupts, "It's a long story. We'll tell you later. Right now you should focus on getting Regina back to the hospital."

"You're right," Dr. Whale replies. "Well until next time."

"This place is turning into Grand Central Station," Emma says once Dr. Whale and the others leave. "If this keeps up the entire population of Storybrooke will turn up before the end of the day."

"Henry, why don't you go into your room for a little bit," Snow suggests, "if I recall you still have some homework to do."

"Homework," Henry asks, incredulously, "you seriously want me to do homework?"

"Yes," Snow says. "Being a prince isn't all balls and feasts you know, you have to work and study hard. You have a duty to protect the inhabitants of your kingdom above all else."

"Okay," Henry says rushing off to his room.

As soon as he leaves, Snow falls onto the couch.

"This is the weirdest day of my life," Snow says, trying to comprehend everything that just happened.

"Join the club," Emma says.

"Most of my memories of being Mary Margaret aren't clear," Snow says. "The nature of the curse had us frozen in time. No one really grew or changed. However all my memories of time spent with Henry are crystal-clear. Perhaps because he lived outside the curse and could still age, but I remember how it was with him and Regina, at least until recently." Snow pauses for a moment. "The two of them really loved each other. Regina became softer, less cruel and doted on her son like any new mother. It didn't get really bad until the last three years or so. Henry started noticing the weird things in town like how no one ever left or aged. While under the curse, I never noticed what he was talking about, but now that's it broken it's obvious how weird things are."

"Wait, I haven't noticed anything really obviously weird since coming to town," Emma interjects.

"That's because you weren't here for long," Snow replies. "Trust me if you lived here for a few months to a year, you would have noticed," she pauses, considering, "or maybe not. You're coming to town, restarted time here. Ella, I mean Ashley, was pregnant for twenty-eight years."

"Ouch," Emma says wincing, "and I thought nine months of pregnancy was bad."

"Yes," Snow says, "but before things started going bad, I or rather the Mary version of me—this is going to get confusing—would have said that Regina was a terrific mother."

"But," Emma prompts her mother, sensing more is coming.

"I don't think I have it in me to forgive her, not even for Henry," Snow says. "It was because of her that I lost you. Your entire childhood would have been so different if not for her. You would have grown up safe and loved with real friends and never wanted for anything." She pauses to catch her breath again. "When you told me how hard your childhood was, that you grew up unloved and didn't have a real friend until you were 16, I hated her more than at any other point in my life."

"I know this will be difficult," Emma says.

"Difficult?" Snow asks. "Try borderline impossible. I don't think you've really accepted who she is yet. She tried to kill you. She is the reason you endured all the tragedies of your childhood."

As Snow says this, it slowly dawns on Emma that Regina is the evil queen, the one who separated her from her parents and gave her such a hard childhood. She struggles as a flurry of emotions come over her.

"You're right, it hadn't sunk in yet," Emma says, trying to understand how all this makes her feel, "but I do know that my son loves her and from what I just saw of her breakdown she loves him too, so she can't be all bad. I don't expect you two will ever be the best of friends, and even this may be pushing expectations, but maybe we can get to the point where you two won't be trying to kill each other on sight."

"Very well," Snow sighs, willing to try for the sake of her grandson, "but this will be more difficult than even you can imagine. Once we restore the memories of the rest of the people in town, I fear they will want the queen's head."

"One problem at a time," Emma says, thinking things over. "I may have a few ideas on what to do with her, but I think I should save them for later."

"Very well," Snow agrees. "We can discuss them with the royal council."

"Wait, you actually have a royal court?" Emma asks shocked, as it occurs to her she really is a princess.

"Yes," Snow says laughing. "I know it will take some getting used to. For ten years, I was a fugitive who had resigned myself to a life of lonely exile. When Charming rescued me and we got married, I had a hard time actually believing I was now in charge of a kingdom."

Snow then pauses becoming serious. "Charming," she exclaims, "we have to restore Charming's memory immediately!"

"Tomorrow mom," Emma says. "I know you're anxious to reunite with him, but I've already had a long enough day and don't think I'm up to another long emotional reunion with someone before a good sleep and chance to process everything that's happened today."

Snow looks conflicted for a moment and then nods. "Very well, my daughter," she says. "I think you're right you could use some rest."

"Thank you," Emma says, going to make up the couch.

"But on one condition," Snow continues, "you sleep in my bed tonight."

"No I couldn't," Emma protests. "It's your bed. I wouldn't feel right making you sleep on the couch."

"I think you misunderstood," Snow says. "I want you to sleep in the bed with me," she explains a lump in her throat. "I know you're way too big for this anymore, but I only got to hold you when you were a baby for a few moments. I never had the chance to be your mother. I never had a chance to sing you to sleep or watch you sleep or ease away your fear when you had nightmares. I'd like to hold you while you're sleeping, if just for one night."

Emma is so full of emotion she can only nod.


	6. In the Morning Light

Author's Note: I originally intended for this chapter to be chapter 6 with chapter 5 being a series of mini-interludes on several of the other characters of Storybrooke, but upon reviewing it, it didn't really fit with the rest of the story and I didn't really like it except for the Ashley and Sean bits. I'm in the process of rewriting that into a one shot Sean-Ashley story and will release it in a few days.

Snow sat in bed holding her daughter while she slept. For the first time in longer than she can remember, she feels no worries about the future. For as long as she can remember when she looked to the future, all she could she was dread. The only time she didn't feel a sense of dread was after Charming rescued her from the queen's curse and before her appearance had ruined what should have been the happiest day of her life.

For the first time in her life, she didn't feel afraid of the queen. She still hated her with a passion and did not know what she was going to do about it. When she was Mary, she had worked toward reconciling Henry and Regina. Now it seemed Henry had reconciled with her at the exact time she would have loved him to tell her he never wanted to see her again. It certainly was the definition of irony.

Emma, her daughter, wanted her to try to get along with the queen. No, that wasn't true. She only wanted them to reach the point where they weren't trying to kill each other. Even then, she had no idea what she was asking of her mother. Emma would never understand what hell the last twenty-eight years were for Snow and everyone in this town, and if she could do one thing, she would make sure Emma never would. Snow and James had sacrificed so much in the hopes Emma could live a happy life.

It broke her heart to learn that Emma had grown up without love, without hope. Snow had decided that from this day forward, she was going to make it her mission in life to ensure Emma never had one more bad moment. She would make up for the twenty-eight years she was absent from Emma's life, bringing her the joy and happiness that should have been present in her life from the start.

She wouldn't worry about the queen anymore. If Regina showed remorse and guilt over what she had done then Snow would just have to tolerate her existence somehow, but if she still proved to be the bitch that went around, destroying everyone's happiness, she will find a way to kill her and end her for good. She will not allow that woman to ruin her family's lives anymore. Although from what she had witnessed earlier in the day, she had no doubt that Regina truly loved her grandson.

Grandson, it was so strange to think of the boy she had been teaching that way. Physically she wasn't that much older than her daughter was. She had lived twenty-eight years in this town since the queen had cast her curse. No, that wasn't right. She had existed in this town for twenty-eight years. Everything here was frozen. Until Henry showed up, nothing ever changed in the town. Everyone just walked around in an endless fog.

Everyone that is, except for Regina and Mr. Gold or rather Rumplestiltskin. The man who always appeared in a person's darkest hour and offered deals for an unspecified price that always ended up being far greater than they could ever have imagined. Few people ever resisted his deals. Until she reached her own darkest hour, she never understood how they could trust the man, but when faced with the fear that the queen would kill her child, she was ashamed to say that she was among them. She went to him even after everything he did and basically begged for his help. He asked such a small price for his services…her daughter's name.

On the night of her death, Snow's mother told her that great trials lay ahead, but that she would overcome them and become a great queen. She also told Snow that her first child would be a girl, but it was imperative that she make everyone, even her future husband, believe it was a boy or great tragedy would befall the baby. She could never reveal the truth about the gender or the prophecy to anyone until someone said with absolute certainty that they knew she was having a girl. After that, she was to tell that person, her husband, and a few of her closest friends, but no one else, or she would put her child in great danger. Then she died.

Snow had heard that great leaders would sometimes give deathbed prophecies, warning of great danger, but never really believed it until that night. When she found out she was pregnant, she was terrified of what the queen would do to her child. James didn't understand the terror she lived with since her mother had forbidden her to speak of the prophecy.

That Rumplestiltskin would be the one to know the truth was shocking. When James asked why Snow had lied to him, she explained her mother's dying prophecy and he instantly comforted her. He told her she did the right thing, one of his ancestors once ignored such a dying prophecy as superstitious nonsense, and it led to their death and the near destruction of James' kingdom.

She was thinking about her reunion with James, when Emma started to thrash around next to her breaking her out of her recollections. She sat frozen for a second, before realizing her daughter was having a nightmare. Snow kissed Emma's forehead and pulled her into her arms.

"Hush, little one," Snow says. "Your mother's here. Nothing can hurt you now."

She felt Emma instantly relax in her arms, and fall back into a natural, relaxed sleep.

For the rest of the night, Snow didn't bother reflecting any further on her past or the future, instead focusing on here and now and the fact that she and her daughter were finally reunited.

In the morning, Emma wakes up feeling more refreshed and happy than she ever has in her life. She wonders why, until the events of the previous day come back to her. Then she looks around, noticing that while she is in Mary's bed, Mary is nowhere around.

She sits back and sighs, feeling instantly depressed.

_It was all a dream_, Emma thinks sadly. _Henry's fairy tales got it so embedded in my head I'm actually having dreams about them_.

Her thoughts don't last long when Henry comes rushing in, followed by Mary Margaret. Emma immediately notices that she still has shoulder length hair and is wearing the same dress from yesterday.

_It's true_, Emma thinks, her happiness instantly returning. _I finally have a real mother_.

It is then that she notices Snow is carrying a tray.

"What is this?" Emma asks looking at the tray, which Snow filled with pancakes, bacon, scrambled eggs, toast, a bagel, juice, and a grapefruit.

"What does it look like?" Snow asks. "I made you breakfast in bed."

Another lump forms in Emma's throat. She isn't used to anyone caring for her. None of the foster parents she ever had really cared about her. Even before Snow had regained her memories, she had probably showed her more acts of kindness than all her foster parents combined.

Noticing her look of shock and awe, Snow puts the tray down in front of her. "You have picked up a very bad habit," she says in a gentle but stern voice. "You have come to expect that acts of love and pampering are something rare and precious, rather than something to be expected. I am going to break you of this habit. It is my mission in life from this day forward to make up for your unhappy childhood and to make sure you never forget that you are loved even for one second."

Emma can only nod.

"Now come on, eat up, we have a busy day ahead of us," Snow says with a smile.

"Yeah, I know," Emma says as she starts eating the big breakfast Snow has brought her. "We have to go visit Regina in the hospital, restore Prince Charming's memory, and figure out how to break the curse on the entire town at once."

"We already have a way to break the curse," Henry says. "All you have to do is take the book, say a person's real name, and command that their memories be restored."

"I'm not one hundred percent certain that will work," Emma says, continuing to eat. "I don't know much about curses, but I seem to recall something about true love being able to break them. So I think that I was able to break the curse on Snow because we already had a bond as mother and daughter."

Henry thinks about this for a few minutes. "That sounds logical," he says.

"And besides I don't think it would be efficient to go around the entire town restoring people's memories one person at a time," Emma adds as she finishes the last of her meal.

"Good point," Henry agrees.

"Well go get dressed and then we'll go and visit the mayor," Emma says. Henry immediately rushes out of the room to get dressed. "Mar...Mom, I have a favor to ask of you."

"Anything you need," Snow says.

"I know you don't trust Regina and you have every reason not to," Emma says, "and while I said that bad people can change, it would be foolish to trust her immediately. I believe she truly loves Henry, but I'm not sure that once she has rested and regained her strength, she isn't going to try to do something horrible again."

"And?" Snow prompts, trying to find out where her daughter is going with this.

"And I need to know if she's truly reformed," Emma says. "I want a chance to question her alone for a little bit without Henry being there."

"So you need me to keep him occupied for a while," Snow says.

"Yes," Emma says. "Tell him I got a call from Sherriff Graham and he needs to go over a few things with him. In the meantime, take him out shopping for a get-well present for Regina."

"Okay," Snow says, then goes to her closet to pick out an outfit. "Are these clothes really mine?"

"Yes," Emma says. "You don't remember buying them?"

"To be honest, no," Snow says. "My life as Snow White, I remember with perfect clarity, but with the exceptions of the time I spent with you and Henry, my time as Mary Margaret is more of a dream-like haze."

"Maybe because your time as Mary Margaret was a dream-like haze," Emma says, as she quickly gets dressed. "You were frozen in time here for twenty-eight years, reliving the same events over and over and before that all your memories of your childhood and early adulthood were just constructed fabrications that never really happened. No wonder your memories as Mary are muted."

"Yes, that may be the case," Snow replies.

"Anyway, I have to get going before Henry finishes getting ready," Emma says.

"Okay," Snow says. "Just be careful."

"I will," Emma says as she heads for the door. "Oh and one more thing, tell Henry not to go around telling everyone I broke the curse on you. For the time being tell him it will be better if you pretend to be Mary Margaret Blanchard."

"I understand," Snow says. "I love you."

Emma gets a lump in her throat once again, and when she is able to speak, she answers Snow's statement with absolute honesty. "I love you too, mom," she says, causing Snow to get teary-eyed as well.

* * *

><p>Twenty minutes later, Emma is standing in the waiting area of Storybrooke's main hospital, waiting for Dr. Whale to finish Regina's examination.<p>

"Good morning, Miss Swan," Dr. Whale says and looks around. "Are Henry and Ms. Blanchard with you?"

"I told Mary to take Henry out shopping for a get-well gift for Regina," Emma explains. "I wanted to talk to her in private, first."

"Ah, of course," Dr. Whale says. "You want to see if she's still suffering from the delusion that she's the evil queen from Henry's storybook."

"What?" Dr. Hopper asks as he comes up to them.

"Dr. Hopper," Emma says in surprise. "What are you doing here?"

"I came in to see how Regina is doing," Dr. Hopper answers. "Henry has only been in to see me once since the explosion happened. When I saw him, all he could do was talk about how sorry he was for treating his mom so badly and how she wasn't really evil. I was hoping that something good could come out of this tragedy and he would finally start snapping out of his fairy tale fantasy, but you said that Regina is now suffering from the delusion that she is the evil queen."

"Yes," Dr. Whale says, "and it seems that she now believes Henry is Snow White's grandson and Emma here is her daughter and that Snow White has regained her memories."

"How did she come to believe that?" Dr. Hopper asks, trying to process all of this.

"Well from what I can determine, I think Mary was trying out a wig to see how her hair would look if she let it grow out and Regina saw that when she managed to escape from the hospital to see her son," Dr. Whale answers.

"Why didn't anyone tell me this?" Dr. Hopper asks.

"Sorry," Emma responds. "We've just had a lot of other things on our minds in the last few days."

"Oh, of course," Dr. Hopper says. "I'm so sorry. The sheriff told me that the explosion was no accident. An escaped convict you caught caused it hoping to kill Henry. Of course keeping me informed of things wouldn't be your top priority."

"In any case, aside from the fact that she shares her son's fantasy, she's in good mental condition," Dr. Whale says. "She knows who she is and was able to perfectly recite recent events and the names and jobs of everyone in town. Unfortunately, while she was reciting the names of everyone in town, she also listed who exactly they originally were in the fairy tale world. According to her, I'm the wolf from Little Red Riding Hood."

"I see," Dr. Hopper says.

"In any case, she's ready for visitors," Dr. Whale says. "She's healing remarkably well and should be ready to go home in three days." He pauses for a moment and becomes quiet. "Wait, she doesn't have a home anymore, does she?"

"We'll figure something out," Emma says as she goes to enter the room. She stops as she notices, Dr. Hopper following her. "I'd like to speak to her alone for a few minutes."

"But I'm a trained psychologist," Dr. Hopper says. "I can help you with this."

"I need to speak with her alone," Emma responds. "You can speak with her when I'm done. Please just trust me on this."

"Of course," Dr. Hopper says.

Emma takes a deep breath and enters the room to confront the woman who had raised her son and ruined much of her family's life.


	7. The Return of the King

Emma was barely out the door when Henry came running out of his room.

"Mom, Grandma, I'm ready," he says excitedly. He looks around, noticing that Emma has left. "Where's mom?"

"She had to go to the office to go over some notes with Graham," Snow lies. "She said she shouldn't be long, though."

"Okay," Henry says.

"She suggested we go into town and pick up a get-well present for Regina," Snow says.

"Oh, I know just the thing," Henry replies excited. "I haven't given her anything for a long time and since our house blew up, she'll need new things, so maybe we could buy her some new clothes."

"Practical," Snow says, not really looking forward to doing something nice for Regina, but trying to keep her feelings to herself for her grandson's sake. "We can pick up a couple of new outfits for her. Do you know her size?"

"Yes," Henry answers and then turns to leave. "Let's go."

"One more thing," Snow says, "until we restore the memories of the rest of the town, Emma thought it would be best if you don't refer to me as grandma or Snow."

"I can do that...Mary," Henry replies. "I know a lot of people in town thought I was crazy for believing in the curse, but that was part of the curse itself, making it difficult for people to believe in it."

"That's good," Snow says and sighs, "I just hope it will be as easy for me."

"What do you mean?" Henry asks, confused.

"Well you just had the book and you were working on guessing who all these people were," Snow says, "but I actually knew all of them in the fairy tale world and since Emma restored my memories, my life as Snow is dominant with my life as Mary being kind of a dream."

"And you're worried that you'll accidentally slip up and refer to them as their true selves?" Henry asks.

"Yes," Snow answers.

"Don't worry," Henry says, "just try to think before you speak, and if you do slip up, it won't really matter. We'll have the curse lifted in a matter of days."

"I hope you're right," Snow says, "but I have a feeling getting everyone back home won't be as simple as restoring my memory was."

* * *

><p>Fifteen minutes later, Snow and Henry were standing in Storybrooke's best women's clothing store. The prices were so high Snow could only recall ever looking in it. She had never bought anything from it before. She immediately recognized the salesclerk as Abigail, her royal seamstress and only barely stopped herself calling her that. She supposed that many princesses would take such luxuries for granted and at one time, she did too, but after being on the run for five years without any of the amenities she grew up with, she had developed a new appreciation for things she had taken for granted all her life.<p>

"Miss Blanchard, Henry what a pleasure," Joy, as she is known in this world, greets them. "I love what you've done with your hair. Have you finally decided to upgrade your wardrobe to include some of my masterpieces?"

"No, not today," Snow answers.

"We're shopping for my mom," Henry says.

"Ah, the lovely Ms. Swan," Joy says. "I've seen her around town, and while her clothes certainly are practical for her line of work, every woman could do with a few dresses for special occasions."

"No not her," Henry says, "my other mom."

"You mean the mayor?" Joy asks in shock.

"Yes," Henry says. "What's so surprising about that?"

"It's just that I haven't heard you call the mayor mom in some time," Joy says, recovering. "She was always telling me however hard she tried to make you happy, you just kept pushing her away."

"Ouch," Henry says, a flash of guilt coming over him. "I've really been mean to her, haven't I?"

"Oh, no," Joy replies quickly. "Every child has periods of rebellion against their parents. I myself had a period of a few months where I wouldn't speak to my parents. Now, what did you want to get your mom?"

"Well a little bit of everything, I guess," Henry says. "All her clothes were destroyed when the house exploded."

"Oh, my goodness," Joy says, "that completely slipped my mind. How could I be so insensitive? I've always been a bit of a scatterbrain."

Snow had learned this all too well after Abigail had nearly burned down an entire tower of the castle, but she managed not to comment.

"Well I have a couple of new things that I think the mayor will really like," Joy says. "A few outfits for casual wear, a couple of business skirts. And a brand new dress that I've been working on especially for her for this year's autumn festival."

"Cool," Henry says, his face lighting up.

"I'll even sell it to you wholesale," Joy says.

"Oh, no," Snow protests, "we couldn't accept your charity."

"I won't hear of it," Joy says. "The mayor has always been my best costumer and I wouldn't feel right making a profit on someone else's tragedy."

Since that sounds a lot like the Abigail she always knew, Snow decides to accept her kindness.

"Now let's see, that's ten outfits total and four of the outfits come complete with shoes. I'll also add some underwear, a few bras, and socks, if that's all right," Joy says.

Snow and Henry both nod. Joy then adds everything up, and hands the bill to Snow.

If Snow were still Mary, she would have balked at the bill. Even with the discount, the purchase would nearly deplete her bank account. Of course, she had a feeling that if she transferred the cost of one of her own standard royal dresses into Earth money, that would cost more than she made in a year as Mary Margaret Blanchard. Besides, it's not as if she intends to be in this world much longer anyway and it makes Henry happy, so she hands the woman her credit card.

"Thanks," Joy says. "I just have to do a few alterations. They should be done in forty-five minutes."

"Thank you," Snow says, and then turns to Henry. "Do you want to go to Granny's while we wait?"

"Sure, we can grab some hot chocolate," Henry answers, "and maybe we can get Ruby to make my mom's favorite pie that is if the doctor allows her to have outside food."

"We can ask him when we get to the hospital," Snow replies, so caught up in her grandson's excitement that she completely forgets that he is talking about the woman she hates most in the world, "and if not we can save it for her until she's released.

* * *

><p>"Henry, Mary," Ruby greets the pair as they enter the diner. "I thought you were going to the hospital to visit Regina today."<p>

"We are," Snow replies, looking around to see the only other customers in the diner are Prince Thomas and Ella or rather Sean and Ashley. "We just decided to pick up a get-well gift for her first."

"Oh, what did you get?" Ruby asks.

"We bought my mom some new clothes," Henry says. "All her old stuff was lost in the explosion."

"Mom," Ruby asks in shock, "you're calling Regina mom again?"

Henry winces as he is reminded once again how awful he has been to his mom.

"Oh, don't feel bad," Ruby says, trying to make him feel better. "I'm sure she knows you didn't mean it."

Before Henry can respond to that, John or Prince Charming walks in the diner.

"Good morning, John," Ruby greets him.

"Good Morning, Ruby," John says, smiling then he turns to Mary and his smile falters when he sees her.

"John," Snow says, using every ounce of willpower not to go running into his arms. It was the first time she had seen him since regaining her memories and he was still as handsome and charming as she remembered. She kept having to remind herself that he still had total amnesia and didn't remember her.

"Mary," John says, his face going white. "What did you do to your hair?"

"I decided to try out some hair extensions," Snow lies, worried about his reaction. "Why, don't you like them?"

"No, no, I think it looks really good on you," John says quickly, looking around and noticing Henry and Ruby have walked to the other side of the diner. "It's just that I had a weird dream about you the other night and you had long hair."

"What was the dream about?" Snow asks, her heart racing at the thought he might be remembering on his own.

"Well it's embarrassing," John admits.

"Don't worry, I won't laugh," Snow assures him.

"Well, you know how Henry has this fantasy about us all being fairy tale characters," John says.

"Yes," Snow answers, trying to keep her emotions from showing.

"He told you who he thought you were and who he thought I was?" John asks.

"Yes, he told me I was Snow White and you were Prince Charming," Snow answers, focusing all her will on pretending to still be Mary. She really should have forced Emma to restore his memories before she went to the hospital to see Regina.

"Well last night I had a dream that I was Prince Charming and you were Snow White and we were at our wedding," John says.

At this Snow loses what willpower she has left and starts to cry. John starts to say something, when the diner door opens and a man cries out. The pair turns immediately to the door to see a man with a gun enter the diner.

"Everyone, stay calm," Ruby tells her customers. "I don't want any trouble. You can take whatever you want."

"This ain't no robbery," the man says. "I'm here for my revenge on Emma Swan."

"You're the one who blew up my house!" Henry realizes with a start.

"Yes, and I'm here to finish the job," Big Jim says, aiming his gun at Henry.

"No!" Snow cries in horror.

Without thinking, John runs toward the gunman. He leaps in front of the gun, just before it goes off, saving Henry. He then knocks the gun from Jim's hand and punches him squarely in the face.

Snow runs over to check on her husband, while Sean pins Jim to the ground and Ashley grabs the gun. Henry's face has gone white.

"Call 911," Sean says. "Get an ambulance and the sheriff here immediately."

"Right," Ruby says, running to the phone.

"How is he?" Ashley asks, concerned.

Snow checks him out, fear coursing through her body. _No, no, it can't end like this_, she thinks. However, as she continues to look him over, she can't see any blood or a bullet wound. She finally looks in his pocket and finds a ruined cell phone. The same phone she had given him as a present a few days earlier.

"Looks like you saved me," John laughs, recovering from the shock.

Then, before she can stop herself, Snow kisses him full on the lips. As she kisses him, a beam of golden light engulfs them, causing everyone in the diner to avert their eyes.

When the light has subsided, the crowd looks in shock to see that Snow is now wearing an elegant white dress and John is now wearing a red tunic with matching pants and a sword.

"Snow," James says with a smile, "you found me."

"I'll always find you," Snow says, returning his smile.

"What just happened?" Ruby asks in shock.

"One of two things," Sean says, "either Henry was right about that fairy tale curse or this guy had some kind of hallucinogenic gas on him."

Before anyone can respond to that, a purple glowing portal appears in the diner and a loud roar comes from inside it.


	8. Regina's Tale

"Hello," Regina says as Emma enters her room.

"Hi," Emma says awkwardly.

"Where's Henry?" Regina asks.

"I told Snow to take him out to get you a present," Emma says. "I wanted to talk to you alone for a while."

"Snow is out shopping for a present for me?" Regina asks, incredulously. "Are you sure her memory has come back completely?"

"It has," Emma assures her, "and despite what you did in the past, you did do a good job raising Henry."

"Thank you," Regina says.

"But that doesn't change what you did," Emma says. "I'm still trying to wrap my head around this curse being real." Regina is silent, so Emma continues, "My son is willing to give you a second chance, but I need to know if as soon as you regain your strength, you're going to try to continue your quest for revenge."

"I don't know what I'm going to do anymore," Regina answers honestly. "When my house exploded and I thought I was dying, my whole life flashed before my eyes. I realized how much I focused my life on revenge and control of others and how little of it brought me real happiness."

"What caused you to hate Snow White so much anyway?" Emma asks. "I didn't read that much of the book, so how did the feud really start? Was it really because your mirror told you that she was the fairest in the land and you were jealous?"

"That was the final nail in the coffin," Regina answers, "but the feud started years before."

"We were both the same age," Regina begins. "We were princesses from neighboring kingdoms that never had good relations, but because we were both princesses, we were forced to attend the same balls. While I was certainly a jaw-dropping beauty, that sickening Snow White had this pureness of heart that drew everyone to her like moths to a flame."

"Hey that's my mother," Emma interjects.

"Sorry, I can't be expected to change completely overnight," Regina replies.

"Just try to watch what you call my family," Emma says, feeling protective of the mother she has just discovered.

"I became insanely jealous of Snow," Regina says. "All the young princes tended to want to dance with her first and me second. I became determined to become more beautiful than she was. I worked day and night in my castle, trying to outdo her so the princes wouldn't even look twice at Snow at the next ball and it worked. Everyone was so enamored with me that no one paid any attention to Snow. There was one prince I was particularly attracted to, a battlefield commander, just back from winning a distant war. He was the star of the party, captivating everyone with his stories."

Regina's wistful look as she recounts the story captivates Emma.

"The two of us instantly hit it off," Regina says fondly. "The next several balls that were thrown, he paid no one but me any attention. My time was him was the happiest time of my life and then, on my eighteenth birthday, he proposed. We were to be married in his kingdom. My wedding was to be a great event to be envied throughout all the lands."

"What happened?" Emma asks, knowing something must have gone terribly wrong at Regina's wedding.

"The final remnants of the kingdom the prince defeated happened," Regina says bitterly. "They planned to kill the prince responsible for their kingdom's defeat and gain enough money to reclaim their kingdom by holding all the royalty that would be attending hostage."

"I'm not a genius on security, but with so many princes, princesses, kings, and queens at such an event, wouldn't it be nearly impossible to gain access?" Emma asks.

"One would think," Regina answers. "However with so many foreign dignitaries there, all with their own security forces and royal attendants, it was easier than one would have thought to slip in. A small group managed to use a strong magic sleeping spell on the wedding party. After the spell went into effect, only my prince, his parents, Snow, and I were still awake."

"Why weren't any of you affected?" Emma asks, curious.

"It was a spell," Regina explains. "The person who cast it can select who they want to be immune from it. I can only assume they wanted the prince and his family to be awake so they could see them carry out their revenge."

"I can understand that," Emma says, "but why wasn't my mother affected?"

"I later learned that her mother had given her an amulet that granted immunity from such spells," Regina explains.

"Then why wasn't she immune to the curse?" Emma asks.

"It provides protection against minor spells, not spells as powerful as the curse I cast," Regina answers. "Besides, I stole the amulet from her years before, now to return to my story. There were twenty enemy soldiers in the castle and everyone was asleep except for the five of us. I was terrified—this was before I started learning magic.

"The prince wasn't willing to go down without a fight He grabbed a sword and started to fight the attackers. He knew he couldn't defeat so many on his own, but his plan was for him and the king to distract them while his mother, Snow, and I tried to reach the mage's chamber and enact an emergency spell that would wake everyone up. It worked until one of the intruders grabbed one of the fallen guests and threatened to kill her if we didn't reveal ourselves. The prince's mother and I ignored him, because we knew that we were all dead if we agreed to his demands. Only Snow White obeyed. The guest he grabbed was Snow White's oldest servant, one she cared for deeply. The prince's mother and I just shook our heads in disgust over her reckless action and continued on to the chamber to awaken the guards.

"When we got back we found the prince was dead." Regina was on the verge of tears. "When they saw the guards awakening, they attempted to use Snow as a hostage to escape. A fully alert hostage is easier to threaten, then one who is still half-asleep. The prince risked himself to save her. If it weren't for her boneheaded move, I would have had my perfect wedding. It was then I vowed to destroy her life."

"You can't blame her for what happened to him," Emma says.

"Looking back on it objectively, I know she is not to blame," Regina says, "but at the time and for so long afterward, I did blame her. I turned to learning dark magic and made a deal with Rumplestiltskin for the very curse that sent everyone here."

"But you didn't use it at the time," Emma says.

"No," Regina says. "At the time, I was angry, but I just wanted to make Snow suffer, not everyone in all the kingdoms."

"I talked to my father and had him arrange a marriage between myself and Snow's father," Regina says.

"But I thought you were the same age as Snow!" Emma exclaims.

"I was, but for royalty such unions for stability weren't uncommon," Regina continues. "My father gave me the crown of our kingdom and when we were married, the two were united as one."

"What happened next?" Emma asks.

"The two of us ruled side by side for a time," Regina says. "I went out of my way to make life as miserable for Snow as possible without attracting attention to myself. Then the king died of a heart attack."

"Wait, according to the book he was stabbed through the heart," Emma interjects.

"I used a spell to make it appear that Snow killed her father," Regina responds. "I made it look like she was jealous that I would rule the kingdom after the king died and then she fled as a fugitive. If you haven't already heard it from Snow, she can tell you the long version. The short version is this: Snow met your father, they managed to defeat me, and in retribution, I cast the curse by killing my father and here we are."

"Yes, here we are," Emma says. "Now the question is what to do with you? I know my son loves you, but I doubt that all the people you cursed will be so quick to forgive you."

"You're probably right," Regina answers, "I have no defense for my actions. My father told me he believed we could still be happy, and I literally put a knife in his back. I fully expect to end up in prison when you lift the curse and return everyone to our original world."

"Speaking of which, how do we break the curse?" Emma asks.

"I don't know," Regina answers. "Rumplestiltskin created it. Maybe you should try asking him."

"But he doesn't have his memory of the fairy tale world either," Emma starts, then pauses. "Does he?"

"I'm not sure," Regina admits. "I thought he didn't, but recently he said some things that lead me to believe he has retained his memories."

Emma considers this information. "I'll have to work on a way to find out if he has regained his memories."

Regina looks thoughtful for a minute. "Emma, I know it doesn't excuse my actions, but I was full of rage in my youth," she says. "You have no idea what it's like to lose the man you love."

"Actually I do," Emma says. "Remember when I told you that you didn't have to worry about Henry's father?"

"Yes, you told me that he didn't even know about Henry," Regina says.

"That was partially true," Emma says. "He didn't know about him when he was alive."

"He's dead?" Regina asks.

"Yes," Emma says.

"What happened?" Regina asks.

"The two of us were accepted to colleges in different states but we vowed to keep in touch," Emma says. "I found out I was pregnant a month and a half after the two of us left for college." She pauses for a moment. "He was a good man. I had a strong feeling that if I told him about the child he would want to help raise it, but he had plans to go to medical school and become a doctor and with my issues of abandonment as a child I wasn't ready to become a mother."

"I'm truly sorry about that," Regina says sincerely. "If I had a chance to do it all over again, I would live my life differently."

"Well it's too late for that," says an eerie voice that seems to emanate from nowhere.

Suddenly a purple portal appears behind Regina. Eight tentacles shoot out of it and grab Regina by the arms and legs.

"HELP!" Regina screams.

At her yell, Dr. Whale and Dr. Hopper rush into the room. They stare at the portal in open-mouthed astonishment.

"HELP!" Regina screams again as she desperately tries to fight the tentacles.

Emma immediately runs forward to help her, followed by Dr. Hopper while Dr. Whale just stands frozen to the spot. Emma manages to grab one of Regina's arms, while Archie starts to attack the tentacles with his cane. After a minute of fighting, the tentacles disappear and the portal closes, but as it does, a beam of energy blasts Dr. Hopper.

"What's happening to me?" Dr. Hopper asks as he starts to glow bright gold.

The light becomes so intense Regina, Emma, and Dr. Whale close their eyes. When they open them, they discover that a small green cricket wearing a brown jacket with an umbrella on his back has replaced Dr. Hopper.

"What just happened?" Dr. Whale asks, looking around in shock.

"Where am I?" Jiminy Cricket asks, in cricket. "What happened?"

To her surprise, Emma can understand what he's saying, but before she can respond, the hospital begins to shake violently.

"Earthquake!" Dr. Whale yells.


	9. The Battle Begins

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Thanks for all your reviews, they really make my day and motivate me to write more. The real action picks up in this chapter. In the coming chapters, more and more of the characters are going to have their memories restored. When this happens, I will switch from calling them their real world names to their fairy tale names. In this chapter, it happens in the middle of an action scene, so don't be confused when their names change. Also, a couple of characters haven't had their fairy tale identities revealed, in those cases I'll be making one up. Well on with the story.

King James draws his sword and approaches the glowing portal carefully.

"Okay, will someone please tell me what's going on?" Ruby asks.

"I'm not sure, Red," James replies. "Just keep your crossbow ready."

"Red?" Ruby asks. "My name is Ruby and I've never held a crossbow in my life."

"This is no time for jokes," James snaps.

"It's the curse," Snow tells him. "My memory and yours have been restored, but the rest of the people here still don't know who they are. Don't you remember your other life here?"

"I vaguely recall something about being a coma patient," James says, struggling to think. "I think someone called me John or David or both."

"Hold on, the curse is real?" Ashley asks, unable to believe this turn of events. "So I'm really Cinderella?"

"How can you even believe that nonsense?" Ruby asks in disbelief.

"It's not nonsense," Henry protests.

"Considering a flash of golden light engulfed the two of them and changed them into fairy tale royalty and opened a glowing purple portal, I'd have to agree with the kid," Sean says then pauses. "Wait a minute, I really am I prince?"

"Yes," Henry says. "Don't worry my mom will restore your memories and you'll be back in your castle in no time."

"Mom?" James asks. "I vaguely remember her. She was the blonde haired woman who was friends with Snow or Mary I guess."

"So is she a fairy godmother?" Ashley asks.

"No she's..." Snow begins, when Sherriff Graham bursts through the door with his gun raised, cutting her off. He sees Big Jim on the floor and handcuffs him.

"Is everyone all right?" Graham asks looking around.

"Huntsman," James growls angrily pointing his sword at Graham.

"No, Charming," Snow says, stopping him. "He doesn't know who he is."

"What's with the fairy tale outfits?" Graham asks, noticing their attire. "Are you indulging Henry's fairy tale fantasy ag..." He trails off upon seeing the portal. "What is that?"

Before anyone can answer, the building starts to shake and the portal starts to glow brighter. The earthquake lasts about thirty seconds and when it is over another loud roar comes from the portal followed by a burst of flame. Fortunately, no one is standing by the portal and the fire hits the back wall.

"Fire!" Ruby screams, running to grab a fire extinguisher.

She quickly puts the fire out as Graham aims his gun at the portal.

"What's going on?" Graham asks, confused.

"Well it appears that Henry is right and we are all cursed fairy tale characters," Sean says. "Mary is Snow White and John is Prince Charming, their memories were somehow restored and now this portal opened and from the looks of it, there's a fire-breathing dragon on the other side of it."

"If I wasn't looking at this portal, I'd think you were all crazy," Graham replies, then, pauses. "Instead I'm looking at it and I think I'm crazy."

Suddenly, his cellphone rings. He answers it and his face goes grim.

"I believe it, I'm looking at one now," he tells whomever called. "Activate the emergency response teams and round up those state troopers as well. I want all the townspeople to the emergency shelters." He pauses as he listens to the other end of the conversation. "No if there are portals in the emergency shelters, go to another shelter or find somewhere there aren't any. I'll round up my new deputy and try to investigate it." He listens for a few more moments. "You know the mayor's son, the one who believes this whole town is under a fairy tale curse, well he may be right," he says, and then after a much shorter pause, "No, I'm not kidding. If you have a more logical explanation that doesn't involve an extraterrestrial invasion I'd love to hear it, but in the meantime just follow my orders."

He hangs up the phone and begins dialing.

"What's wrong?" Ruby asks.

"More of these portal things are opening up all over town," Graham says grimly, "and according to one report, three trolls have already emerged from one of them."

"Trolls?" Ruby asks in disbelief.

"Deputy Swan, this is Sherriff Graham," Graham says. "We have an emergency. You're not going to believe this. Giant glowing portals are appearing all over town." He stops talking for a moment as he listens to Emma. "Oh, I see." Another pause. "Is she okay?" Another quick pause. "Well just get down to the diner as quickly as possible, we need a plan." He hangs up.

"All right, normally I'd say I'm in charge," Sherriff Graham says, "but since this is a magical emergency, I'll defer to the experts. Jo..." He pauses for a second. "Prince Charming, you're in charge."

"Only Snow calls me Prince Charming," James says coldly. "You may call me King James or Your Majesty."

"James show some consideration," Snow chides. "He doesn't remember who he was and even when he was the Huntsman, he spared my life."

"You're right," James says. "You have my apologies."

"No problem," Graham replies. "So I'm the Huntsman and Regina really is the evil queen? What about the rest of you?"

"Cinderella," Ashley answers.

"Little Red Riding Hood," Ruby replies, not sounding too thrilled about it.

"Prince..." Sean begins, then, trails off. "I have a name right?"

"Prince Thomas," James answers.

"What's going on?" Big Jim asks beginning to wake up as one of the state deputies comes running into the diner.

"I'd like to know that too," the deputy says.

"I'm not sure," Graham answers. "Just get this guy to the town jail and make sure he doesn't escape. We have enough problems without worrying about this nut."

"Yes, sir," the man says, taking the convict away.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Graham asks.

"I'm not sure," James says. "I'm not an expert on magic. Usually, we consult the Blue Fairy on things like this."

"The Blue Fairy?" Graham asks. "And who is the Blue Fairy in this world?"

"I'm not sure," Snow says, racking her brain. "I recall seeing her occasionally in this world, but I can't recall where."

They hear another roar from the portal and the group steps back, as it grows a little bit larger.

"Well until you can remember, we need to come up with some kind of plan before that portal becomes large enough to let whatever's on the other side through," Graham says.

"You're right," James says. "I suggest that for the moment we retreat to a more defensible location and arm ourselves more thoroughly. We should then try to find the Blue Fairy and figure out some way to..."

"Alexandra!" Ashley yells suddenly. "I was so caught up in all this, I forgot all about her."

She pulls out her cellphone and quickly dials Sean's house where she and Sean had begun living after convincing Sean's father that they wanted to be parents to their child.

"It says the call can't connect," Ashley panics.

"All the landlines were knocked down by the earthquake," Graham explains, trying to calm her down.

"Sean's father doesn't have a cellphone!" Ashley says. "We have to go check on her."

Ashley runs out of the diner, followed closely by Sean.

"Ashley, wait!" Sean yells as he follows. "It's dangerous out there! We need a plan!"

"Hold on you two!" James yells, following them, his sword still raised. "You're both unarmed!"

Sheriff Graham pulls out his cellphone and dials a number. "Emma, this is Graham," he says. "Change of plans. Ashley and Sean want to check on their daughter, so we're going to meet up at Sean's house."

He hangs up and turns to Snow, Henry, and Ruby. "Are the three of you coming?" he asks.

"Where James goes, I will follow," Snow replies.

"I'm not staying here alone," Ruby says firmly.

"You're not going to tell me it's too dangerous?" Henry asks a little surprised. "You don't want me to stay where it's safe?"

"Yes I want you to stay where it's safe," Graham answers, "and as soon as we find such a place, I'll leave you there. For the moment though, it's best if we stick together."

* * *

><p>Thirty seconds after the earthquake started, it ended, leaving a very confused Dr. Whale standing in a room with his patient, a deputy, and a therapist turned cricket.<p>

"What is going on?" Dr. Whale asks.

"You remember how my son thinks everyone in this town is a cursed fairy tale character?" Emma asks. "Well he's right."

"That's ridiculous," Dr. Whale states.

"It's true," Jiminy says.

"It's crazy," Dr. Whale insists. Then he realizes he's talking to a cricket. "I'm arguing with a cricket. How is it I can understand what he's saying?"

"It's because of the Blue Fairy," Jiminy answers. "She gave me the ability to be understood by others."

"I'm listening to a cricket talk," Dr. Whale says. "I've officially lost my mind."

"Regina, do you know what that portal was?" Emma asks quickly.

"No," she answers.

"Do you know what the creature that attacked you was?"

"No."

"Did you recognize the eerie voice we heard before the attack?" Emma asks

"It sounded vaguely familiar, but I can't quite place it," Regina answers.

"Last question: is there anyone else in town who knows their true identity?" Emma asks.

"Besides the possibility of Mr. Gold, I don't know anymore," Regina answers.

"Is there anything you do know?" Emma asks in frustration.

Before Regina can answer Emma's cellphone rings. Emma immediately goes to answer it, but Dr. Whale stops her.

"Cellphones aren't permitted in this area of the hospital," Dr. Whale says.

"Are you serious?" Emma asks, unable to believe that he is upholding hospital regulations after what just happened.

"Well I suppose we can make an exception for today," he says as Emma resumes answering her phone.

"This is Emma," she says. "I believe it, one just opened up at the hospital." She pauses for a second, listening. "Some kind of tentacle creature came out of it and tried to pull her in," she continues. "Yeah, she's fine." She pauses again as she listens to the rest of the conversation. "All right, I'm on my way."

"What's going on?" Dr. Whale asks, concerned.

"These portals are opening up all over town," Emma answers grimly. "Gather up all your patients and staff and try to get everyone as close together as possible. Make sure to account for everyone and arm everyone with whatever you can find. Above all, don't let anyone go off alone. Make sure they're at least in pairs at all times."

"Okay," Dr. Whale says. "Where are you going?"

"To the diner to meet up with the Sherriff and my mother to form some kind of strategy," Emma says. "Oh and make sure to keep a close eye on Regina. I have a feeling that tentacle monster and the person who spoke with that eerie voice may be back for her."

She leaves the room with Jiminy sitting on her shoulder.

"Will do," Dr. Whale calls as she leaves, then pauses in confusion. "Wait a second I thought you didn't know who your mother was."

* * *

><p>Upon leaving the diner, Graham catches up with Ashley and Sean and convinces them it would be quicker to go in his cruiser. It is a tight fit with the seven of them in the car, but they all manage to fit. A few minutes later, they arrive at Mr. Herman's house. To their horror, they see that someone or something has ripped off the front door.<p>

"Alexandra!" Ashley yells as she rushes toward the house. Sean quickly runs after her. Graham draws his gun and James draws his sword.

"Stay with the boy," James orders Snow and Ruby.

They enter the house, to find Sean's father standing in front of Alexandra's crib wearing a tunic with matching pants, holding a sword, and facing off against twelve trolls. From his stance, they can tell that he's injured.

"We've just come for the baby," the apparent leader of the trolls says. "Just give her to us and we'll leave you in peace."

"No!" Ashley yells, running toward her child followed closely by Sean, James, and Graham.

As they run, Ashley and Sean start glowing gold. By the time they reach the trolls, they are both dressed in their fairy tale realm attire. Thomas quickly draws his sword and stabs one of the trolls. James follows suit stabbing another while Graham shoots one in the head.

While they are distracted, Ella grabs Alexandra and turns to help her father-in-law. "How badly are you injured?" she asks.

"I'll be fine," King Michael answers. "Just get Alexandra to safety."

She hesitates for a minute, but runs when a troll comes over to try to grab the child. It is only as she is running that she marvels she hasn't tripped over her heels. She quickly notices that while she is now wearing her favorite blue dress from the fairy tale world she is still wearing the sneakers she had put on that morning as Ashley.

"Thank heaven for small miracles," she says as she runs out of the house. She looks back and finds that the trolls have not followed.

"Ashley!" her friends yell, running toward her.

The three then notice her state of dress.

"Ella!" Snow says. "Your memory came back, but how?"

"I don't know," Ella answers. "When we saw Alexandra in danger, Thomas and I just changed back. It appears Thomas' father changed back too."

"But why, I thought my mother had to be the one to break the curse?" Henry asks.

"She did start breaking the curse," Snow says. "When she first came to town, she restarted time. Then she restored my memory, I restored James' memory, and Ella and Thomas' concern for their baby restored their memories."

"Never mind that," Ruby interrupts. "What's going on inside?"

"Oh!" Ella exclaims. "There were twelve trolls in the house trying to take Alexandra! They inured King Michael—Thomas-Sean's father. So far the others have taken out three of the trolls, but they're still outnumbered three to one."

A second later, another car pulls up and Emma gets out.

"Hey guys," Emma says, and then notices Ella's state of dress. "Cinderella, I presume."

"Just Ella," Ella says with a smile.

"Sorry to be rude Emma, but here's the Cliff Notes version of what's going on," Ruby interrupts. "John's, Sean's, and Sean's father's fairy tale memories have come back. Right now they're in the house with Graham, whose memory hasn't come back fighting nine trolls."

"Right," Emma says as she draws her gun. She then pauses a moment and takes her back-up gun off her ankle and hands it to Snow. "Mom you stay here with Ella and Ruby and protect Henry and Alexandra. I'm going to help Graham and the others."

"Right," Snow says, her heart warring with the desire to help her husband and daughter and the knowledge that someone needs to protect her grandson and her friend's daughter.

"Wait a minute," Ruby says in shock. "Did Emma just call you mom?"

Snow sighs and turns to her friend, but Henry starts explaining before she can, so she turns back to the house to keep an eye out for any escaping trolls.


	10. Family Reunions

Emma enters the house, with her gun drawn, ready to shoot any trolls that appear. In the back of her mind, she wonders what she would have said if someone had told her, she'd be in this situation last week.

_Was it really less than seven days ago I had a normal life_? she wonders. She sees her target, cutting short her self-reflection. Graham is unconscious on the floor, John—her father—is fighting off three of the trolls while Sean or Prince...she couldn't recall his fairy tale name...is fighting off another three that are trying to get to his father. The rest of the trolls are on the ground with various wounds, either dead or dying.

As she assesses the situation, one of the trolls gets through her father's defenses and knocks him to the ground. The troll raises his sword for a killing blow. Emma raises her gun without hesitation and fires a shot directly into his head. He falls to the ground, dead.

All the trolls look at the newest intruder, giving her father and Thomas enough of an opening to stab one of the trolls each through the heart. They quickly recover and the troll facing Thomas brakes off and races toward Emma, which leaves James, Emma, and Thomas facing one troll each.

Emma aims her gun to shoot the troll, but he is too fast and knocks the gun out of her hand. She quickly drops to the ground and grabs one of the dead troll's swords. Her friend Olivia once told her that she would one day thank her for the fencing lessons she made Emma take with her. She laughed at the time, saying that would happen when pigs flew.

_Considering everything that's happened today, if flying pigs showed up, they would be the least unusual things I see_, she thinks as she raises her sword to fight the troll.

"Surrender now and we won't hurt you," the troll says. "The people of your world are expects with your mechanical creations, but hopeless with true weapons as your bearded leader proved."

As he finishes speaking, she quickly brings her sword up and knocks his sword out of his hands. She then puts the blade to his throat.

"You were saying?" she asks.

He glances over to find that his remaining comrades have been defeated and are either dead or unconscious.

"You can kill me," the troll says, "but more will take my place."

"Kill him now," King Michael commands.

"No," Emma answers.

"I am a king," he says, outraged at her refusal. "This troll has threatened my life and that of my son and daughter-in-law and sought to kidnap my granddaughter. Who do you, a person born in this limited world, think you are? You think you have the right to tell me what I can or can't do?"

"First of all, you are not in your kingdom or even your world," Emma states angrily, making sure not to take her eyes off the troll. "Second, in this world we have things called justice and due process. Third, I'm the kid's godmother and the only reason the baby is still with you and not with Mr. Gold or whoever he intended to give her to. Fourth, not that it should matter, but I was born in your world and I am a princess. Finally, if all that means nothing to you, it seems wise to question the troll to find out why they wanted to kidnap Alexandra and if reinforcements are likely to show up to try again."

At her chastising, the king seems deeply ashamed. "I am sorry, my lady," the king says, as his anger deflates. "When my memory returned, I felt great shame at the way I treated Ella, Thomas, and the baby in this world. I remember when you first came here when I was still under the curse to try to help Ella and the child and I brushed you aside without a thought. I am deeply ashamed of my actions and am in your debt."

While the king talks Prince Thomas grabs some of the chains the trolls had, and securely ties up the remaining troll. James checks to make sure that all of the trolls are indeed dead. He then checks on the now-stirring Graham.

"I accept you apology," Emma says. "I should also apologize to you. I was angry at you for the way you treated Ashley and Sean..." She turns to the prince. "What's your real name by the way?"

"Thomas," he answers, "and my father is King Michael."

"Thank you," Emma says, before turning to address King Michael again. "Only now do I realize the main reason you treated them so badly was the curse."

"Apology accepted," King Michael answers, sitting down. He begins to clutch his chest.

"How are badly are you injured?" Emma asks in concern.

"It is nothing, just a flesh wound," the king replies. "My healers can patch it up in...Oh, wait I don't have healers here. Well I will just make-do with the hospital. I think some of my healers ended up there."

"How's Graham?" Emma asks James.

"I'm fine," Graham says. "I'm just not much of a swordfighter in this world, I guess."

"You weren't much of one in the old world either," James says. "You were more of a tracker. You really didn't participate in many swordfights from what I'm told."

"Well that makes me feel better," Graham says. "At least I still have that skill in this world. Well, I better let the others know it's safe to come in."

"One thing confuses me, though," King Michael says to Emma, as Graham exits the house. "You said you were born in our world and that you are a princess, but I knew all the princesses of our world, or at least have seen pictures of them, and you do not look familiar. Furthermore, the curse did not trap you in Storybrooke with the rest of us. How can that be?"

At his question, James' head snaps up and he stares at the woman in front of him. He had only spent time with her when she came to 'his' house a few days ago to tell him his name wasn't David Nolan and Kathryn wasn't his wife. He never really caught her name, but at the time, he thought she seemed familiar to him. Less familiar than Mary Margaret was, but still familiar. Hope awakens in his heart at the thought.

"Emma?" he asks his voice thick with hope.

"Yeah, it's me," Emma says awkwardly, not sure how to handle this situation.

"My beautiful baby girl," James says, rushing over to hug her.

"What's going on?" King Michael asks in confusion.

"Emma is King James' and Queen Snow's daughter," Jiminy Cricket began to explain. He had come in with Emma and is now on the living room table, where he jumped before she started fighting the trolls. "There was a prophecy stating that they needed to get their daughter to safety and that on her twenty-eighth birthday she would return to break the curse and start the final battle."

"I thought Snow was having a boy?" Thomas asks confused.

"A bit of misdirection to protect her," James answers, letting go of Emma. "Snow's mother made a dying prophecy when she was a girl."

"Prophecies," King Michael says in disgust, "I hate prophecies. They're always so dark. Just once I would like to hear a prophecy without death, suffering, or great challenges involved."

"If there was a prophecy predicting happiness without any suffering, there wouldn't be much need for the prophecy," James replies.

As he says this, Graham re-enters the house followed by Ruby, Snow, and Henry.

"Are these trolls dead?" Henry asks curiously, when he sees the trolls on the ground.

At his question, Emma, who was too involved in the battle, the argument with Michael, and the reunion with her father to pay attention to Graham when he said he was getting the others, now turns on him in full fury.

"You thought it was a good idea to bring my son into a house with dead bodies?" Emma asks in rage, advancing on Graham.

"Um…I didn't think," Graham stutters, backing fearfully away at the look in his deputy's eyes.

"You're damn right, you didn't think," Emma snaps before turning back to Henry and quickly dragging him out of the house before he can see any more of the trolls.

"Are you okay, kid?" Emma asks in concern.

"I'm fine," Henry says, apparently not relating dead trolls to dead people. "Did you kill any of them?" Then seeing her sword, his expression becomes even more animated. "Did you use the sword? Can I have one?"

As Emma tries to formulate a response, her parents come out of the house.

"Did this boy call you mom?" James asks in shock.

"Yes," Snow says. "This is your grandson, Henry. You remember I told you all about him when you were John. Try focusing on your memories."

"He doesn't remember his life as John?" Emma asks.

"He didn't really have a life as John," Snow says. "You told me that the queen didn't give him a manufactured identity like everyone else since he was supposed to stay in a coma for the rest of time. He woke up less than a month ago and didn't really attach himself to anyone here."

"I think I remember now," James says, "but I thought Henry was the mayor's son. Wait the mayor is the queen! Did she kidnap him?" he asks furiously.

"No!" Emma and Henry say at the same time.

"I had Henry when I was eighteen," Emma says. "In your world, having children at that age is normal, but in this world, for most it's considered too young and I wasn't ready to raise a child at that point, so I put him up for adoption, hoping he would find a good home."

"And he ended up with the queen instead?" James asks. "What of the father? How could he not have offered to help you raise his own son? I swear when I find him, I will kill him for such a disgrace."

Emma lowers her head in grief. James, recognizing the look, quickly goes over to comfort his daughter.

"I'm sorry," James says gently. "I didn't know."

"My father's dead?" Henry asks.

"Yes," Emma says. "When I found out I was pregnant, we were both in separate states going to our respective colleges. I had a feeling if I told him, he would help me raise you, but I wasn't ready for that type of commitment and he had dreams of going to medical school, so I never told him about you."

"How did he die?" Snow asks.

"His father was killed in the attacks of 9-11," Emma explains. "After that he joined the army. Two years later he was killed in Afghanistan."

"I'm sorry," James says, going over to comfort his daughter, while Snow comforts Henry.

After a few minutes of crying at the remembrance of her lost love, Emma walks over to her son.

"How are you?" she asks.

"I'm okay, I guess," Henry says. "I always wanted to know about my father, but I figured you weren't ready to tell me about him. I don't really know how to feel."

"I'll tell you all about him," Emma says quietly. "I think he would want you to know."

"You can tell him later," Snow says. "We still have these portals to deal with."

Meanwhile, Thomas and Ruby are helping his father out of the house followed by Ella carrying Alexandra while Graham moves the troll.

"We need to get to the hospital," Thomas says. "My father is starting to get worse. Once there we'll need to come up with some kind of strategy to deal with this mess."

"We can interrogate the troll there," Graham says. "We'll make the place our temporary headquarters since a lot of the injured will be brought there."

"Good plan," Emma says her previous rage at Graham put aside in the face of the coming trials.


	11. The Situation Worsens

Two more minor earthquakes, each lasting fifteen seconds occur as they are driving to the hospital. When they finally arrive and get out of their cars, they look up to see that the sky is now tinted purple.

"What the hell?" Emma asks.

"The sky has turned purple," Graham states needlessly, looking up at it in shock. "Is the sky purple in the fairy tale world?" he asks, turning to James.

"No," James replies solemnly.

"Anyone have any idea what's causing it?" Graham asks.

Silence greets him.

"We could ask the troll," Henry says thoughtfully. "He may know."

"I will tell you nothing," the troll says.

"Emma, you must use your power on him to make him tell you the truth," Jiminy Cricket says.

"Jiminy!" Henry exclaims, for the first time noticing the cricket.

"There's a talking cricket," Graham says. "This day just gets weirder and weirder."

"A magic cricket, oh great," Ruby says sourly.

"What's wrong?" Ella asks her friend. "You haven't seemed like yourself today."

"Well I'm not myself am I?" Ruby says bitterly. "I'm still under the curse, aren't I?"

"Don't worry," Ella assures her. "We'll restore your memory soon enough."

"Oh and then I can go back to being little Red Riding Hood," she says harshly. "While you go back to being Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses and what am I in the fairy tale world? Just someone who got attacked by a wolf dressed up as her grandmother."

"Red, that's not true," Snow interjects. "I've read some of the versions of our histories here and a lot of them got muddled up and diverted from the truth. Almost none of them got muddled up as badly as yours."

"Really?" Ruby asks, perking up. "What's my real story?"

"You grew up in the forest of my kingdom and became a game warden," Snow says. "You were a great warrior and protected towns and villages from wild creatures and were as good a tracker as the Queen's huntsman, if not better. You helped teach me ways of hiding myself in the forest. You were also instrumental in defeating the queen. You then became a trusted and valued member of the royal council."

"Really?" Ruby asks, starting to smile.

"Really," Snow answers.

"Okay, now that we're done with that, can we please get my father inside the hospital before he loses consciousness?" Thomas asks.

"Of course," Ruby says, returning her focus to the current task.

They enter the hospital to find it in a state of chaos.

"It's the end of the world!" one woman screams, running through the building.

Before they can go looking further, Doc the Dwarf comes running up to the group.

"Queen Snow, King James," Doc exclaims, "Prince Thomas, you're back and Princess Ella, you've had your baby!"

"Doc, you've regained your memories," Snow exclaims. "How?"

"I don't know," Doc answers. "From reports coming in, people all over this crazy town are changing back to their true selves, but it seems to be completely random. What's worse, most of the ones that are remembering can't remember anything at all of their lives in this world. To them it's as if the curse was cast one second and the next they were here in this world."

"I see," James says.

"Never mind that," Thomas says. "My father needs help."

Doc quickly goes over to examine the King.

"He'll be fine," Doc says. "A few stitches and some rest and he'll be as good as new."

"Nurses, gurney," he says, calling over two nurses. One is wearing a normal hospital uniform while the second is dressed as a royal healer from the fairy tale world. The two quickly load him onto a gurney and carry him toward a suture room followed by Doc.

A second later, Dr. Whale walks over, looking grim. "What is this, the royal procession?" he asks looking at their outfits in disbelief.

"Sort of," Emma says. "What's the situation?"

"Let's get out of the main flow of traffic," Dr. Whale says, noticing the tied up troll. "We should go to my office."

As the group makes their way to Dr. Whale's office, various people dressed in both fairy tale garb and the traditional clothing of the world they are currently in stop them. The people in the fairy tale garb beg for answers and they respond that they are working on the problem. The people still under the curse, however, are looking at them with disbelief.

"The situation is apocalyptic," Dr. Whale says grimly as soon as they are in his office. "As you saw people are randomly changing back to their fairy tale personas, most with no memory of this world whatsoever. We have reports of a dragon emerging from a portal at Granny's diner and flying over the town, spraying fire randomly, stretching the fire department to the breaking point. There are reports of an army of trolls rampaging through the streets. Regina has nearly been snatched twice more by that tentacle creature and about half the town tried to flee, only now there's some kind of purple wall force-field at the town border preventing anyone from leaving. We can't even get a cell-phone signal out."

"This is worse than I imagined," Emma says.

"We need to take the fight to the queen," James says. "Once we finish her, we can end this."

"No! We can't!" Henry protests.

"Regina—the queen isn't causing this," Emma says. "She's been here in the hospital since this whole thing began, and she seems to be repentant for what she's done."

"She's a liar," James insists. "How can you be sure she's telling you the truth?"

"I'm sure," Emma says. "Ever since I was little, I could instantly tell when a person was lying. It never failed me once and for all her faults and crimes, she did treat Henry well."

"Fool, the queen doesn't matter," the troll says. "The Dark Lord's plan will soon reach fruition and we will all be his slaves."

"What do you mean?" James asks.

"I'm not going to tell you," the troll replies, shutting up.

"Emma you must use your power to get him to tell the truth," Jiminy says again.

"I can't," Emma replies. "I can only tell when someone is lying. I can't force someone to tell me something he doesn't want to."

"Yes you can," Snow says. "If what you say is true, then you are a truth-seer. You can not only tell when people are telling the truth, you can also force people to tell you the truth by exerting your will when asking a question."

"Isn't that kind of unethical?" Dr. Whale asks.

"In our world, truth-seers are very rare. They're sought out when they're still young and are often asked to join our equivalent of law-enforcement officers," James explains. "Even the ones that don't join, are required to take special classes to teach them how to use their powers ethically and when it's acceptable to force people to tell the truth."

"Well I think this qualifies as an acceptable time, if there ever was one," Ruby says.

"Agreed," Emma says, "but how do I do this?"

"Just close your eyes and focus your will on forcing him to answer your questions," James says.

"Okay," Emma says, closing her eyes and focusing her will on the troll. As she is focusing, she can feel a power from deep within her.

She opens her eyes a second later and looks at the troll. "Did it work?" she asks.

"Yes," the troll answers, though it is clear he didn't mean to.

"Okay," Emma says, then, pauses as she tries to think of a question. "Why did you want Alexandra?"

"We want her so we can gain the upper-hand in the troll civil war," the troll answers.

"The troll civil war?" James asks.

"It started when the younger generation of trolls grew tired of living underground. They wanted to rule the upper world as well," the troll answers. "So they made a deal to trade the troll's most sacred treasure to gain control of the surface world."

"How?" James asks.

"Once the curse was cast everyone in our world was affected, except for the trolls who were immune," the troll answers. "They were divided into the three groups. The world's royalty, as well as the queen's greatest enemies and allies ended up in this world with no memory of who they were, under her rule. The second group remained in the fairy tale world to serve those renegade traitorous trolls, as mindless, ageless slaves."

"But the queen hates trolls," Snow says. "Why would she help you rule the fairy tale realm?"

"The queen didn't create the curse," the troll answers, "and we do not rule the fairy tale realm. Those loathsome traitors do."

"Okay," Emma says. "So who did create the curse?"

"The Dark Lord did," the troll answers. "The cost for casting it was very great, and he didn't want to pay that cost, so he traded it to the queen and set it up so she would cast it."

"The Dark Lord?" Emma asks. "Don't tell me Voldemort is involved in this."

"Voldemort?" James asks confused.

"The main villain in a popular children's book series," Snow explains. "But aren't you too old to have read the novels?"

"Mom watched all eight movies with me last week," Henry says proudly. "It was really fun."

"Back to the topic at hand, who is this Dark Lord?" Dr. Whale asks.

"Rumplestiltskin," Ella answers. "He's the one who wanted my child."

"But why?" Dr. Whale asks.

"He likes to buy children from desperate poor people, usually by tricking them into saying they'll agree to give him anything to get out of the hardships they're in, and then demanding their first born as payment," James says coldly. "He then sells them to rich people who can't conceive their own children for a great deal of money."

"How can he do that?" Emma asks, enraged. "Aren't there wanted posters in the fairy tale realm? How can people not know about his schemes? And how can rich people do that? Aren't there orphanages in your world, where people could adopt?"

"There are wanted posters in our world, but Rumplestiltskin is not on a lot of them," James says bitterly. "He made himself indispensable to a lot of very powerful people, who didn't want his deals with them exposed. My parents themselves made deals with him. After I became king and he tricked Ella into signing away her baby, Thomas and I managed to catch him, but Thomas disappeared because doing that broke the contract with Rumplestiltskin. Thomas was never seen in our world again."

"But what about orphanages," Emma asks, "surely rich people could just adopt?"

"That isn't how most rich people in our world operated," Snow says in utter disgust. "They considered adoption as a practice worthy of only the poor. They couldn't bear to admit that they couldn't have children themselves, so part of the deal was to magically convince their neighbors and the rest of their families that the child was indeed theirs."

"That's disgusting," Emma says, her mind instantly flashing back to the day her adopted family returned her to foster care after finding out they were having their own kid.

Snow remembering vividly, what Emma told her about her own past, went over to comfort her.

"I know it's a horrible practice," Snow says. "That's why I outlawed it in my kingdom. It was one of the first things I did when I became queen."

James, sensing there is something behind his daughter's disdain for this practice, almost asks her about it, but decides it's probably best to discuss it privately later. Instead, he turns back to the troll.

"What did the opposite side trade to Rumplestiltskin?" James asks. "And what happened to the last group of people you mentioned?"

"They traded him our most precious artifact," the troll answers, "the key to the Forbidden Realm. The last group were sent there as his slaves to strip-mine its power for him."

"The Forbidden Realm?" Emma asks.

"It is forbidden to speak of it to outsiders!" the troll screams, trying to fight against Emma's spell. "I can't tell you."

"Sorry, but we need to know," Emma says, closing her eyes and once again forcing her will on the troll. "What's the Forbidden Realm?"

"The Forbidden Realm is..." the troll begins, when they hear a loud crash and terrified screams from outside the office interrupting him.

"Now what?" Emma asks, as everyone in the group raises their weapons and rushes out to face their next challenge.


	12. Enter the Dragon

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I'm playing with the timeline a little bit here. I started writing this fic after episode 4 aired, but am going to include some of the events of episode 5 and 6 in it. As for Regina, I kind of lost empathy for her after what she did in the last episode, but am going to continue on with her redemption as to do otherwise would require me to completely rewrite this story from the beginning. But she won't be getting off easily as she will have to face the consequences of her past choices. Also, a thank you to Tinian I'att who is now beta-ing my work for grammar mistakes. I will be reposting my previous chapters as soon as he betas them.

The group exit Dr. Whale's office to discover a dragon has burst in through a wall and is breathing fire at fleeing patients and staff.

"Ella, get Alexandra and Henry to safety," Thomas orders.

Before Ella can respond, the dragon turns to the group and says in a low growling voice, "Henry, capture Henry." The dragon then rushes toward the terrified boy.

James and Thomas quickly draw their swords and start to head toward the beast, but before they can get far, two glowing purple portals appear in front of them and from each emerges one of the creatures that attacked Regina earlier in the day. The two creatures are ten-feet tall and move to engage the two warriors to prevent them from reaching Henry.

Snow quickly grabs Henry's hand and runs with him, trying to keep him out of the dragon's path. Suddenly, another portal opens in their path and ten trolls armed with swords and spears appear in front of them.

"Capture the boy, the baby, and the chosen one for the glory of the Dark Lord!" the lead troll shouts.

One of the trolls raises his spear and prepares to throw it at Ella, who the tentacle-creatures and trolls have trapped in a dead end. Before he can throw it, however, there are two golden flashes of light, which distract the trolls. When they look over at the flashes, they see Red Riding Hood and a half-wolf, half-man creature. Red is holding a crossbow and quickly puts an arrow in the lead troll's heart, killing him instantly.

"Zeke, protect the Ella and the girl," Red commands the werewolf.

"Protect them yourself," Zeke says. "I'm not your slave."

"Do it now or I'll make you sorry!" Red yells.

"Very well," Zeke says, rushing to attack the trolls with his claws, while Red aims another arrow at them.

Meanwhile Emma and Graham deal with the dragon. Graham draws his gun and shoots at the dragon. The bullets, however, don't appear to do anything, but annoy it.

"This isn't working," Graham says. "My bullets aren't having any effect."

"Yeah, but at least it's keeping it away from Henry," Emma says.

At the mention of Henry's name, the dragon turns its attention back to Snow and the boy. Snow, now armed with a sword, is fighting off two trolls while Zeke is protecting Ella, who is holding her baby close. The dragon rushes to Henry, knocking both Snow and the trolls to the ground and grabs the back of Henry's shirt in its mouth.

"Help!" Henry yells.

"Henry!" Emma shouts.

The dragon turns to the hole it created to fly out. Emma immediately runs toward the dragon and leaps onto its back just as it flies out of the building.

"Emma!" Snow and Graham yell at the same time.

Graham immediately runs to the stairs and down to the first floor of the hospital. He quickly exits the building and looks to the sky. He sees Emma holding onto the dragon as it flies across the town. He dashes to his car and takes off after it at full speed.

* * *

><p>Snow watches Graham run out of the building and wonders what he's going to do. Then she notices two of the trolls getting up. She quickly plunges her sword into the heart of one of the beasts and turns to face the other, only to find a crossbow bolt in its heart.<p>

"Good one, Red," Snow says. "I told you that you were a great warrior."

"Thanks," Red says.

"Well we got all the trolls," Zeke says, joining them.

"We could use some help," Thomas calls as he and James struggle with the two tentacle-creatures.

"Right," Red says, aiming her crossbow at one of the first creature's eyes.

She scores a direct hit, causing it to stumble back in pain. She quickly follows up with a shot to the creature's second eye, blinding it. This causes the creature to flail about wildly, mistakenly attacking the second creature and knocking it to the ground.

James, Thomas, and Snow take advantage of this distraction and run toward the stunned second creature. They each managed to hack off one of the creature's tentacles, leaving it bleeding from three holes.

"The heart of the creature is in the center," Red says, "aim just above the green patch on its body."

"Right," James says, seeing the green patch on the upper body.

He immediately leaps onto the creature and plunges his sword into the patch, while Thomas does the same to the second creature. The two creatures immediately start convulsing and a few seconds later melt into a pile of goo.

"How did you know that?" Ella asks.

"I remembered reading about them in a book once," Red says. "They're called Octoquentezles, but they're supposed to be extinct."

"Well let's hope they are now," James says as he looks around to see that all their foes are dead. He then realizes Emma, Henry, Graham, and Jiminy are missing.

"Where are Emma and Henry?" James asks concerned primarily for his family. "And what happened to the dragon?"

"The dragon captured Henry," Snow says slowly. "Emma leaped onto the dragon's back before it flew away with him. I think Graham went to try to follow them."

"Emma jumped onto the dragon's back?" James asks in disbelief. "Didn't she realize how insane that was?"

"The dragon took her son," Thomas states. "You'd have done the same thing."

"You're right," James says. "We have to follow them."

"Wait," Ella says. "The dragon could be long gone by now and we have no idea where it took them."

"She's right," Snow says slowly. "We'll just have to hope our daughter takes after her father and manages to slay the dragon."

James looks pained, but knows his wife is correct.

"We'll just have to question the troll," James says, turning toward Dr. Whale's office.

"I'm afraid we can't do that," Jiminy says, emerging from the office. "When the chaos started I went to guard our prisoner to make sure he wouldn't escape, but a portal appeared and before I could stop him, he leaped into it."

"I say we follow him," James says.

"You can't," Zeke says, changing back to his human form. "It's too dangerous. Not that I really care what you do."

"Actually, the portal closed as soon as he entered it," Jiminy says.

"Fine," James says. "Then I'm going to question the queen."

"But Emma already said she didn't know anything," Snow reminds him.

"She must know something," James says, "and it's better than sitting around doing nothing."

"I suppose you're right," Snow says. "I just hope Emma and Henry are all right."

* * *

><p>"Henry are you okay?" Emma asks, hanging onto the dragon with one hand and her sword with the other.<p>

"No!" Henry says. "I'm in the air, being held by dragon."

Before Emma can respond to that, a purple portal appears before them and they fly through it. Going through the portal is disorienting. When they emerge, Emma notices they are now only a foot from the ground. Before the dragon can fly upward, she rams her sword through the creature's side with all her strength. This causes the dragon to cry out in pain and drop Henry. Emma immediately leaps to the ground after him.

"Are you all right?" Emma asks in concern.

"I'm fine," Henry says and then his expression changes to one of horror. "Look out!"

Emma quickly turns to face the dragon, which has now recovered and looks furious.

"Kill," it hisses.

"Henry, run and hide," Emma says. "I'll take care of the dragon."

"But..." Henry begins to protest.

"No buts!" Emma yells, her tone making it clear she is in no mood to argue. "I'm your mother and I'm giving you an order. Hide and leave the dragon to me!"

"Right," Henry says. He quickly runs away as fast as he can while his mother faces the dragon.

As soon as Henry starts running, Emma ducks and rolls to where her sword landed. She quickly grabs it and barely manages to avoid the fire that the dragon shoots at her. She ducks behind a rock as the dragon advances on her, but the dragon swiftly flies over it and lands in front of her.

She draws her gun and fires her last bullet in the dragon's mouth as it prepares to roast her. This causes the dragon to spit up blood instead of fire. Not wasting the creature's pain, she rushes toward the beast and in a move that would have made her father proud cuts off its head.

"Very impressive," a voice says from behind her.

She spins around to see five trolls standing before her, all heavily armored. She raises her sword to face them. She feels weak and tired form the day's pervious battles, but is not about to give up yet.

* * *

><p>Graham follows the dragon as best he can, feeling frantic. In all his time in Storybrooke, he's never felt anything. He served the mayor's every whim, not even remembering when the two of them first became lovers. He never really felt anything for her and always promised himself that he would leave her after each time they slept together, but never could.<p>

He knew the mayor never loved him, that he was nothing but a sex toy to her, but something compelled him to go back to her time after time. He often thought she must have bewitched him. Now knowing that Henry was right and the curse was real, he realized with a start that she must have indeed bewitched him. As soon as this crisis was over and Regina was back on her feet, he was going to have words with her.

For now though, he focuses on Emma. From the second he saw her, he felt something for her. It was the first thing he remembered feeling for anyone. In the brief time he knew her, the feelings she stirred in him only intensified. He wanted to spend more time with her, so knowing she needed a job and that she had experience in law enforcement, he offered her a job as deputy. He knew that this would enrage the mayor, but was able to concoct a plausible excuse about keeping her son's biological mother under her control while she stayed in town.

The better he got to know Emma, the more he felt for her, but at the same time, the mayor tried harder and harder to assert her control over him When Emma discovered the two of them had been sleeping together, the look of disgust on her face, broke his heart. It was then he realized he was beginning to fall in love with her. He knew that if Regina found out, she would be furious.

He is broken out of his recollections when he sees a portal appear in front of the dragon. He watches in horror as the dragon flies through it with both Emma and Henry. He stops the car, wondering what he can do now. He has no idea where the portals lead. He has a suspicion it leads to the fairy tale world, but it could lead to the Forbidden Realm the captured troll mentioned.

He could really use his fairy tale world memories about now. He closes his eyes and tries to remember, but nothing happens.

"Damn it!" Graham says in frustration. "I need my memories back!"

It is then that a little blue fairy flies up to him.

* * *

><p>James bursts into Regina's room full of both worry and fury.<p>

"Start talking," he demands of the former queen.

"King James," Regina says startled, and then looks at the rest of the group in surprise. "I see that the curse has started to break on everyone."

"Yes it has," James says angrily. "Now I want to know what you've done. Where are these creatures coming from?"

"I don't know," Regina says. "I had nothing to do with them. They keep trying to attack me as well."

"You expect me to believe that?" James asks, raising his sword.

"James, calm down," Thomas tells his friend.

"Calm down!" James roars. "You expect me to calm down? This evil witch tried to kill my wife, my daughter, and me. She took the most precious thing in the world from me, being able to watch my child grow up. Whether we win this battle or not, that is lost to me forever."

When she hears this, a tear flows down Regina's face.

"Oh save your acting, I'm not buying it," James says, not believing this woman has an ounce of compassion in her.

"Please, I really am sorry for everything I've done to you," Regina says.

"But you're not," the same eerie voice from earlier in the day says.

"Who are you?" Regina asks startled.

"Don't you recognize my voice?" the voice asks as a glowing mist appears in front of her.

When the shape is finishing forming, she lets out a gasp and her face goes white.

"Father?" she asks in a whisper.


	13. Enter the Forbidden Realm

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the long delay. I'll try to post at least one or two new chapters a week from now on.

Graham looks at the fairy before him in wonder. "Who are you?"

"I am the Blue Fairy," she responds. "I am here to grant your wish."

"My wish?" Graham asks. "I wish Emma and Henry were safe."

"I'm afraid I can't grant that wish," the fairy says. "They are beyond my reach. They are in the Forbidden Realm."

"The troll we captured earlier mentioned the Forbidden Realm," Graham says. "What is it?"

"It is a place between worlds," the Blue Fairy answers, "a void with immense magical power where the strongest magical artifacts were stored by ancient forces after they were deemed too powerful to use."

"I see," Graham says, "and Rumplestiltskin is after one of these artifacts?"

"I assume so," the Blue Fairy answers. "In fact, I believe every deal, every trade he has made has been to get this artifact."

"What does the artifact do?" Graham asks.

"I don't know which artifact he is after," the Blue Fairy admits.

"Another thing if the curse has been in effect for twenty-eight years and his slaves were there all that time, why doesn't he already have it?" Graham asks.

"He has had the key for twenty-eight years, giving him access to the realm," the Blue Fairy answers, "but the Forbidden Realm is vast, as big as this entire planet, and the artifacts are protected and hidden carefully. Even with all the slaves at his disposal, they still haven't found it."

"But why does he want Henry and Emma?" Graham asks.

"According to legend, artifacts from the Forbidden Realm can only be removed by warriors pure of heart when the need is great," the Blue Fairy answers.

"Wait, Emma mentioned that Rumplestiltskin created the curse in the first place," he says, getting angry as he begins to understand what's going on. "He created the curse, just for this didn't he? So he could create a need great enough for someone to access the relic he wanted!"

"I believe so," the Blue Fairy answers. "He made a deal with the trolls for the key to the Forbidden Realm and a great war began between them. The older generation of trolls regards the side that traded the key as traitors. The key is their most sacred artifact, given to the greatest leader of the trolls by the ancient powers as a reward for saving the world in ancient times."

"That's why the trolls went after Ella's baby," Graham says. "They want to use her as a bargaining chip to try to get the key back."

"That is my theory as well," the Blue Fairy answers.

"I need to go after Emma," Graham says. "Can you send me to the Forbidden Realm?"

"Ordinarily no," the Blue Fairy says, "but Regina has lost much of her hatred, which is why the curse is losing power in this world."

"What do you mean in this world?" Graham asks.

"I mean..." the Blue Fairy starts, but then stops, "I have talked too long. Emma is in danger and needs your help."

"Okay, then send me to her," Graham says.

"I can't, but I know how you can get to her," the Blue Fairy says. "Follow the wolf with one red-eye. He will lead you to where Regina is keeping your stolen heart. Once reunited with it, your heart will lead you to Emma."

"What?" Graham asks in confusion.

"I have to go," the Blue Fairy says. "Others are in need of my help."

She flies off, leaving Graham to consider her words.

"Follow the one red-eyed wolf?" Graham asks. "Find my stolen heart? What is that supposed to mean?"

Suddenly, a wolf with one red eye runs in front of him. He stares at the wolf for a few seconds, feeling that the wolf is familiar somehow.

"Wolf," he says, sensing that this wolf is his friend, "take me to my stolen heart."

The wolf takes off, with Graham running behind him.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile back in the Forbidden Realm, trolls have surrounded Emma. She raises her sword to face them when a familiar voice addresses her.<p>

"Welcome to the Forbidden Realm, Ms. Swan," the lead troll says, "and congratulations on slaying the dragon. You have proven yourself a worthy warrior. Every bit as worthy as the Dark Lord said."

"Can you please cut it out with the Dark Lord crap?" Emma says testily. "Just say his name. This is not a Harry Potter book."

"Who's Harry Potter?" one of the trolls asks in confusion.

"Never mind that," the lead troll says. "You will come with us and help us retrieve the master's prize relic."

"That will never happen," another voice says.

The trolls and Emma look toward the sound of the voice, both equally surprised. They see more trolls in armor. Looking at both groups, she spots the different crests on their armor.

"Traitors to the troll nation!" the lead troll of the group closest to Emma spits. "You will be destroyed."

"You're the traitors to the troll nation," the lead troll of the opposite group yells. "Stealing our most precious artifact and giving it the cursed Rumplestiltskin. The ancient powers entrusted us with protecting that object. You sully the name of trolls everywhere. You will be destroyed."

The two groups of trolls rush toward each other, forgetting about Emma.

"Henry!" Emma yells as soon as the two groups start fighting.

"I'm here mom," Henry says running over to her.

"Let's get out of here," Emma says.

"And go where?" Henry asks.

"I don't know," Emma says. "You see any of those portals anywhere?"

"No," Henry says.

"Do you remember reading anything about this Forbidden Realm in your book?" Emma asks.

"There were a few mentions of it," Henry says, thinking about it, "but I don't recall anything specific, sorry."

"No problem, we just have to get as far away from them as possible and hope we find a portal back to the real world," Emma says.

They run for a little while longer when suddenly they see a group of trolls numbering about twenty marching in formation, leading a group of over 100 prisoners. Henry and Emma quickly duck behind a nearby boulder as the trolls pass. As they go by, Emma notices that all the prisoners look haggard and have torn clothes, the result of long years of slave labor.

She looks on in horror as children pass by making her blood boil. She thinks she had a bad childhood, but this is beyond horror. Henry's presence is the only thing keeping her from doing something rash and foolish. Still, she hates the thought of doing nothing. These are people from her original world. Some may even be her subjects. She vows that she will free these prisoners. She will return better prepared and better armed and make these trolls sorry they ever left their bridge.

"Still no luck," a troll complains. "These prisoners have been searching this world for twenty-eight years and we've yet to find a single artifact."

"Yeah," a second troll agrees. "I'm beginning to think there's nothing to these so-called hidden relics."

"The Dark Lord thinks there is, so we'll keep looking," the lead troll says. "Anyway I was just informed that the chosen one is in the queen's domain, so hopefully she'll show up soon and retrieve the artifact for us."

"Yeah, but how will that help us?" the first troll asks. "The chosen one isn't going to use it to help us she'll just use it to end our reign."

"Fool," the lead troll shouts, "the Dark Lord isn't stupid! He has taken steps to ensure the chosen one won't use it on us. After all, he managed to overthrow all of the world's kingdoms and hand trolls their ultimate victory."

The first troll begins to respond, but an arrow strikes him in the throat. The lead troll looks around to see another five trolls also with arrows in their throats.

"You will never have ultimate victory," a male voice yells.

"The resistance!" the lead troll yells. "All troops take defensive positions."

As the trolls scramble to get under cover, arrows kill three more, while three others manage to deflect the arrows sent at them. As they prepare their weapons, six soldiers in armor rush toward them.

The soldiers immediately engage the trolls, but they are outnumbered almost two to one. Emma notices that in the mêlée, the trolls have left their prisoners unguarded.

"Mom, what should we do?" Henry asks.

"We have to try to free those prisoners," Emma says.

"But they look like zombies," Henry says. "They're clearly still under the curse."

"Well then I'll just have to break it," Emma says. "I'm supposed to be the chosen one and a princess besides. There's no way I'm just going to leave my subjects here to rot. You stay here and yell if any of the trolls see me."

"Okay," Henry nods, as Emma sneaks over to the prisoners.

When she gets there, she sees a small boy about Henry's age, unlocking the prisoners' chains and trying to wake them up.

"Come on people," he says, shaking some of them with no luck. "Snap out of it, we're here to rescue you."

"Let me help," Emma says, going over to him.

"Who are you?" the boy asks, drawing a knife.

"I'm a friend," Emma says. "I'm here to help."

The boy looks at the clothes Emma is wearing.

"How do I know I can trust you?" the boy asks. "I've never seen such clothes before and..."

"Mom, look out behind you!" Henry yells.

Emma quickly raises her sword and spins around cutting the head off a troll, who was just about to stab her.

"Thanks!" Emma yells, looking around to see five of the trolls turning toward her. "Crap!"

"What do we do?" the boy asks. "These people aren't waking up and our soldiers are busy fighting."

"There's only one thing to do and I hope it works," Emma says, then adds in her most commanding voice, "I am Princess Emma, daughter of King James and Snow White. The chosen one destined to break the curse. By royal command and all the magic in my blood, I order you to break free of the curse!"

All the trolls and soldiers turn to her with looks of shock, which quickly turn to looks of awe for the soldiers and fear for the trolls as golden light starts to emerge from Emma and head for the prisoners. A second later the group of prisoners, snap out of their trance and look around.

"Where are we?" one of the men asks.

"I remember, it was the queen's curse," a woman says.

"It's her," the leader of the soldiers says in awe. "Princess Emma has come to save us just as the prophecy said."

"Oh damn," the leader of the trolls says as the prisoners turn toward them. "Trolls retreat!"

The remaining trolls run off as fast as they can.

"Should we pursue them?" one of the men asks.

"No," the captain answers. "Even if we eliminate all of them, that surge of magic will have been detected by the troll mages. We need to get these prisoners to safety."

The soldiers go up to Emma, who is breathing heavily. The physical exertion of the day has left her exhausted and the burst of magic she used to free the prisoners has drained whatever energy she had left. It was all she could do to remain standing.

The soldiers all kneel before her.

"Princess Emma," the captain says, "I am Captain Lance, leader of the resistance. Before the curse, I was captain of your mother's royal guard. I pledge my life to you and..."

"Please rise," Emma says. "I know you're grateful to see me, but we can save the formalities for later. Right now we need to get these prisoners to safety before those trolls return."

"Of course Your Majesty," Captain Lance says rising. He gets up just in time to catch her as she falls. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Emma says, "just exhausted. It's been a long day of fighting trolls, not to mention the dragon."

"The dragon?" Captain Lance asks in concern, scanning the sky.

"Don't worry, my mom killed it," Henry says. "It was so cool, it snatched us..."

"Henry not now," Emma says. "They'll be time for explanations later. Right now, we need to get to your hideout. You do have a secure hideout?"

"We do," Captain Lance says and then turns to the prisoners. "Everyone you're now free, but the war is far from over. Soon everyone will be free from the curse as you are, but for now, we need to get to safety to plot our next move. So move out and keep your eyes open for trolls."

Captain Lance begins to march and the rest of the group follows.


	14. Ghosts of the Past

AUTHOR'S NOTE: Sorry for the long delay, but after watching the show's recent episodes I kind of lost my motivation for making Regina a good guy and Rumplestiltskin a bad guy, which was sort of a fundamental plot idea for this story. Now, I have new plot ideas and will try to update more frequently. Oh and just for any who may have missed it, Henry is also Regina's father's name.

Regina looks in shock at the transparent form of her father.

"Father, how can you be here?" Regina asks.

"I've been here all along," her father answers in the harshest tone she has ever heard him use. "Your curse trapped me here along with everyone else. My soul or spirit or whatever you want to call it was imprisoned. Able to see and feel everything that happened in this town, but unable to act." His eyes turn red and he glares at Regina with a look full of hate. "You did this to me," he says in a cold voice. He raises his hand and magically starts choking Regina.

"Father, you're choking me," Regina gasps between ragged breaths. "Please stop."

"Please stop?" her father mocks. "Did you stop when you plunged the dagger into my heart? Do you know what the last twenty-eight years have been like for me? I could feel every bit of misery experienced by the people in this town. Imagine that you're being burned alive and then imagine living through that for every second of every day for over twenty-eight years."

"I'm sorry," Regina manages to choke out.

"But you're not," her father says as he raises his arm again. Then he begins to flicker in and out of existence, releasing his hold on Regina.

"Excuse me I hate to interrupt, but could you please tell me why you're summoning all these creatures and what's going on in the town?" James asks.

"Me?" Henry asks. "I'm not summoning any creatures. I'm just using the power I gained by the weakening of the curse to redirect them to get my revenge."

"But then who is summoning them?" Snow asks.

"The Evil Queen," Henry answers.

"But I'm not summoning anything," Regina says.

"Yes you are," her father answers, "your other self is."

"Other self?" Jiminy asks.

"Allow me to explain," the ghost says. "When Regina went on her path of revenge, she traded half her soul for her power. This made her a powerful witch, but allowed her to retain a small sliver of her humanity. When the house exploded that part of her consciousness was separated from her body, which is why she is acting so differently than you remember."

"Hold on," James says. "Part of her consciousness was separated from her body?"

"Yes the part of her that contained her power, the evil that filled the half of her soul she traded away," Henry continues. "What you're looking at now is my daughter as she was before she traded her soul for power, but she is only half a person. The other part of her is now disembodied and trying to find a way back to her body. If it does, she will become as evil as she was when she killed me and tried to kill your daughter, Emma."

Before he can continue, the door bursts open and an angry Abigail walks in followed by Frederick.

"How dare you!" Abigail shouts. "Turning me into some money-craving whore for your sick revenge schemes and trapping everyone in our kingdoms in this nightmarish town in an unending loop, never aging, never moving forward. It's time for you to die."

Abigail draws a sword and puts it to Regina's throat.

"Yes kill her," Henry says. "Kill her and we'll all be free."

"Who are you?" Abigail says, dropping her sword in shock at the sight of the ghost.

"I am her father," Henry replies. "The one she murdered to enact this dreadful curse. Kill her now and we'll all be free."

"No you won't," Rumplestiltskin says. "Killing her solves nothing. Although if you really want to, go ahead, I'd love to see her dead."

"Rumplestiltskin," Abigail says in disdain. "I should have known you'd be involved in this somehow."

"You've ruined enough lives," Thomas says.

"Ruined?" Rumplestiltskin asks in a mocking tone. "I'm the Dark One, dearies and the Dark One ruins no one's life. I don't do anything to anyone without permission. Ella, wasn't it you who begged me to use magic to allow you to go to the ball so you could meet your prince?"

"Yes," Ella says in shame, before turning angry, "but I didn't say you could have my child."

"Your exact words were I'd give you anything," Rumplestiltskin replies. "Not I'd give you anything but my child. You my dear Snow White, begged for a potion to make you forget your dear James when he was engaged to Abigail and James, your parents were all too willing to sell your brother to me for gold to save their farm. Abigail your father traded much for the ability to turn things to gold." He pauses. "Even dear Jiminy begged for the potion to escape his cursed parents," he continues. "The point is the power of the Dark One comes from desperate people who say they'll do anything to escape their fates, only to realize later that they didn't mean it. And you, your majesty, you traded your father's life to get revenge on a person whose only crime was to save a loved one's life."

"I'm sorry," Regina says, crying again.

"You're sorry," her father says. "Well sorry just doesn't cut it."

"What do you want?" Frederick asks.

"What I want is to be free of my curse," Rumplestiltskin says. "I traded my soul for the power of the Dark One to save my son, but lost him anyway and when I found love again and had a chance to be free, I foolishly rejected it. What I want is the power of the time stone so I can change history. With it, I can rewrite time and save my son and Belle. The power of the Dark One will be gone forever and then you'll all be free to live your lives."

"No deal," Snow says.

"Right, by doing that you'll also alter history irrevocably," James says. "Snow and I will never meet. Emma and Henry will cease to exist and who knows in what other ways history will be changed."

"Now don't be so hasty," Rumplestiltskin says. "The time stone only alters what the holder wants altered. I can see to it that the attack on Regina's groom doesn't happen, so she'll be happily married. This means she'll never trade her soul for her power or have any reason to get revenge on you. Both of your fathers will still be alive. I can also ensure that you and James still meet, although in different circumstances." He pauses as he lets that sink in. "You'll still fall in love and have Emma," he continues. "Only this time she'll be able to stay with you. You will be able to raise her, so she won't have to live in those hell holes where she spent her childhood."

Snow sinks to the ground as she truly contemplates Rumplestiltskin's offer. James just looks at his wife in horror. He didn't really know Emma that well yet, but knew that she and Snow had been sharing an apartment and were close and from the look on his wife's face he knew that despite everything they went through to save their daughter, her childhood had not been a happy one.

"Snow, what is it?" James asks. "What happened in Emma's childhood?"

"Oh, so she hasn't told you?" Rumplestiltskin asks in delight. "I thought married people didn't keep secrets from one another?"

"I just regained my memories a few hours ago and we've spent most of that time fighting trolls and dragons," James says, going over to his wife. "Snow, what's wrong? What was Emma's childhood like?"

"It was awful," Snow says, breaking down in tears. "I don't know everything, but from what she told me, it was terrible. She grew up unloved, shuffled from one set of uncaring guardians to the next. She believed that no one loved her and that she was left on the side of the road to die."

"Snow," James says at a loss for words. They had saved their child from the queen's wrath, but not apparently from a life of sorrow and misery.

"Yes and it was my daughter who condemned yours to such misery," her father says. "It is for that reason she should die."

Rumplestiltskin turns to the ghost for the first time and his mouth drops open in shock. "That's impossible," he says. "There's no such thing as ghosts."

"I used to think the same thing," the ghost says. "Apparently I was wrong."

"Snow," Abigail says, turning to her. "I am sorry about what happened to your daughter and for the way I acted while I was under the curse."

"It wasn't your fault," Snow says, "and I should apologize for punching you."

"No," Abigail says. "The person I was while I was under the curse deserved it."

"Ah, how lovely the two rivals have made up," Rumplestiltskin says, "but you still haven't agreed to my offer."

"Never," James says. "No matter how horrible our daughter's childhood was, she still grew up to be a woman I'm proud of. You can't be trusted. We'll break this curse without your help, and then give our daughter the life she deserves."

"Very touching," Rumplestiltskin says, "and very noble. Perhaps hearing about your daughter's suffering isn't enough. Perhaps you need to witness it firsthand. Come with me and I'll show you, your daughter's memories."

Rumplestiltskin snaps his fingers and he, Snow, and James disappear in a flash of light.

"Where did they go?" Abigail asks in shock.

"Rumplestiltskin has cast a spell to take them into Emma's past," Jiminy says. "He wants to break the two of them by showing them how horrible her childhood was, so they'll agree to help him get this time stone."

"James is too strong a warrior to give in to him," Red says. "He'll never agree to Rumplestiltskin's demands."

"I don't know," Ella says, looking down at the sleeping form of Alexandra. "If it were my daughter, I'd do anything to spare her pain."

Everyone looks at each other wondering if Snow and James will give in to the despair of seeing their daughter's horrible childhood.

"Excuse me, but are any of you going to kill my daughter?" the ghost asks.

"No," Thomas says. "She'll be tried for her crimes when we return to our original world. In the meantime be gone."

"I will not be denied," the ghost says angrily, but starts to fade away. "Damn it, I used too much power remaining visible for so long, but I will recover and I will kill you dear daughter."

With that, he fades away completely.

"You should just let him kill me," Regina says. "He's right, I don't deserve to live."

"Why shouldn't we kill her?" Abigail asks.

"Because we still have laws to uphold," Frederick answers. "We kill in battle when necessary. We don't kill unarmed prisoners."

"You're right," Abigail says, calming down, "but it's so hard. The person she turned me into was so horrible."

"King James," Doc says running in. "We have problems."

Doc looks around and sees that King James and Queen Snow are gone.

"Where are King James and Queen Snow?" Doc asks.

"Rumplestiltskin took them," Thomas says. "He wants their help getting some kind of stone that allows people to change the past, so he went to show them Emma's childhood. He's hoping when they see it, he'll agree to his terms."

"I see," Doc says gravely, "but we have bigger problems. More glowing portals are appearing all over town. The townspeople are panicking and to make matters worse, the people of this world have noticed our situation. Their military has sent tanks, soldiers, and scientists and they're just outside the barrier keeping us in."

"Isn't that a good thing?" Red asks. "I mean we can get some help from the outside."

"This world has no magic," Ella answers. "The military will have no way to get past the magical barrier and even if they do, they'll most likely put us under some kind of quarantine."

"Well, we can't worry about them now," Thomas says. "We need to gather all the townspeople together. Frederick, Red, I want you to try to gather all the soldiers who've regained their memories and try to gather all the townspeople to the hospital. We'll make this our fort."

"Right," Frederick and Red say in unison.

"I'll go with you," Abigail says, following them.

"Doc, Ella, try to organize some kind of warning system. I want to know if any more of those creatures appear."

"On it," Ella tells her husband, and she and Doc leave.

"Jiminy, try to find the Blue Fairy," Thomas continues. "We'll need her help."

"No need, I'm here," the Blue Fairy says.

"Blue Fairy, we need to know how to break the curse and return to our world," Thomas says.

"I know how to break it, but it won't be easy," the Blue Fairy says. ""It all depends on Regina."

"On me?" Regina asks.

"Yes," the Blue Fairy says. "Here is what you have to do."


	15. Hope and Despair

Emma follows Captain Lance as he leads her and the rest of the freed prisoners underground into a large network of caves.

"How long have you been free of the curse?" Emma asks, once she determines they are in no immediate danger of pursuit.

"About three months," Lance says. "We were in a group of five hundred people, digging for artifacts when Pinocchio here found one. Somehow, it activated and freed the entire group from the Queen's spell. The trolls noticed this immediately, but I quickly organized the soldiers and able-bodied adults and we were able to kill them before they contacted anyone. Then we managed to locate these caverns while looking for places to hide."

"You're Pinocchio?" Henry asks.

"Yes," Pinocchio answers somewhat surprised. "You've heard of me?"

"Yeah," Henry says. "You're in my book."

"Book?" Pinocchio asks.

"It's a book containing some of the history of the world you're from," Emma explains.

"I see," Pinocchio says, and then pauses. "Do you know what happened to my father?"

"He's fine," Emma says. "I've met him."

"He is!" Pinocchio exclaims. "Does he miss me?"

"He doesn't really remember you," Emma says. "The curse erased all their memories and gave them new memories designed to make them miserable. I recently lifted the curse from my mother, and that caused a chain reaction that caused others to start to remember, but I'm not sure if it's been lifted on him."

"Your mother? Queen Snow?" Lance asks his heart stopping. "She's still alive?"

"Yes, she's alive and well," Emma says.

"I thought for sure the Queen would have killed her," Lance says, "but I suppose she would want her alive to suffer."

Henry opens his mouth to say something, but Emma stops him. "Henry," she whispers, "it's best not to talk too much about Regina right now."

Henry just nods.

"What of your father, King James?" Lance asks. "Who else has survived?"

"My father is alive and well too," Emma says. "The curse on him was also broken. I've also seen King Michael, Prince Thomas, Princess Ella, Red Riding Hood, Jiminy Cricket, some kind of wolf-creature named Zeke, and Doc of the seven dwarfs."

"Prince Thomas!" Lance says shocked. "You found him? Rumplestiltskin said Princess Ella wouldn't see him in this world or the next until he had her baby!" His expression turns to one of fear.

"The baby is fine," Emma assures him. "Ella gave birth to her a few weeks ago."

"A few weeks?" Lance asks. "But she was eight months pregnant when you were born. The child should be your age by now."

"The curse froze everyone in time, the same as it did for you here," Emma explains. "She was pregnant for twenty-eight years." She shudders at the thought.

"Twenty-eight years of pregnancy?" Lance asks. "But how did you get around Rumplestiltskin's vow that they would never see each other again?"

Emma pauses, frowning. "I sort of made a deal with him," she says.

Lance stops walking. "You made a deal with Rumplestiltskin?" he asks in shock. "How could you do that? Don't you know how dangerous he is?"

"I didn't know he was Rumplestiltskin at the time," Emma says. "The curse suppressed everyone's memories and they all had different names. I only learned today that he was Rumplestiltskin and that he had retained his memories of who he was."

"I see," Lance says, trying to process everything. "What did he ask for?"

"A favor," Emma answers. "Now, knowing who he is, I'm a bit concerned about what he might ask for, but I'll just have to deal with that when the time comes."

"I guess you're right," Lance says. He stops as they approach a large cavern. "We're here."

As they approach, two concealed soldiers come out of hiding, looking at the group in shock.

"Sir, you managed to free another group of prisoners?" one of the guards asks in surprise. "How?"

"It's all thanks to her," Lance says as he enters the cave, pointing to Emma.

Emma looks at the cavern, filled with ragged, hopeless looking people.

"Everyone, I bring you good news," Lance says in a voice that reverberates throughout the entire cavern. "Princess Emma has returned just as the prophecy foretold and has freed another group of prisoners from Rumplestiltskin and the Queen's evil curse with her magic. She has personally slayed a dragon and several trolls. The time of our freedom is at hand!"

The entire group looks up at her, taking in her appearance. Her clothes are torn, she is more exhausted than she ever has been in her life, and she is covered with both troll and dragon blood from the many battles she fought throughout the day. She can't imagine looking less like a princess than she does now. Then she sees these people who have been used as slave labor for the span of her entire life, looking at her, watches their expressions turn from despair to real hope in the span of a heartbeat, and realizes what they need right now is not a princess in a fancy dress, but a warrior, who will fight for them.

And when she sees the hope in their eyes, it makes her feel even more speechless than when she looked into her mother's eyes for the first time and saw the unconditional love in them. She knew in that moment that although she had never been responsible for anyone in her life, she had to be now. These were her subjects and she was their princess. She had to give them hope.

"I am Princess Emma," she says in a loud voice. "I bring you news that both your Queen and King, my parents, are still alive and well. They were under a curse that removed their memories of who they were, but I have restored their memories. When I left them, they were engaged in battle with several of the enemy forces in an attempt to liberate more of our people. I don't know how many of you here are from my kingdom and how many are from others, but I also want you to know that King Michael, Prince Thomas, and Princess Ella are still alive and fighting for you."

As this news settles in, the crowd grows silent in a murmur of mixed excitement.

"I promise that soon you will return home, where you can resume your lives," Emma continues. "I can't promise what condition the kingdom will be in when we arrive, but if it's been damaged we will rebuild. This I vow."

"Princess Emma!" a man cheers followed by another and then another, until everyone is cheering.

"Well you certainly know how to inspire the troops," Lance says. "I never thought I'd see them this hopeful again. What can we do for you?"

At this point, the adrenaline surging through Emma's body begins to fade, leaving her realizing how tired she is.

"You can give me a place to rest," Emma says. "This day has left me exhausted and I could use some sleep before we plan our next move."

"Of course," Captain Lance says. "You can rest in a small side chamber I set aside for planning battle strategies." He then turns to the gathered crowd. "Our princess requires rest," the captain says to the audience. "She has fought many battles today and needs to regain her strength for the battles to come."

"As soon as I am rested, I'll share with you all I know of the curse and plans for getting away from this evil realm."

Lance leads her out of the main cavern with the crowd still cheering.

* * *

><p>Snow and James find themselves standing in an unfamiliar living room with two unfamiliar grim looking people.<p>

"Um, hello," James says. "Could you please tell us where we are?"

The couple doesn't react at all to the sound of his voice.

"Hello," James says louder, but the couple ignores him again.

Then Snow walks up to the couple and puts her arm through their bodies.

"It's no use trying to talk to them," Snow says. "We're in a memory spell. It's designed to show us past events as they happened. No one here can see or hear us."

"How do you know that?" James asks.

"I've been in one before," Snow says.

James is about to ask something else, when a smiling little girl who looks to be around five comes into the room. The two immediately recognize her as their daughter Emma.

"Mom, Dad," Emma says to the two strangers.

"Emma," the woman says in a sad voice.

"No," Snow says, instinctively knowing what memory she is in. She recalls Emma telling her that her adopted parents had returned her to an orphanage.

"What's wrong Snow?" James asks, sensing the horror in Snow's tone.

"Emma, honey, we have some bad news," the woman says.

"What is it?" Emma asks.

"Well honey, I'm pregnant," the woman says.

"I'm going to have a little brother or sister?" Emma asks, her face, lighting up.

"No, sweetheart," the woman says. "I'm afraid not."

"But I thought that's what being pregnant means," Emma says confused.

"Emma, I know you're too young to understand, but your mother is very sick," the man says. "The doctors said that it would be almost impossible for her to conceive and that if she did, it would be a very difficult pregnancy and she would require expensive medical care and total bed rest."

"I don't understand," Emma says.

"I'm afraid we won't be able to keep you," the woman says, in tears. "We have to return you to the orphanage."

Emma's face turns white. "No, no," she says. "You promised you'd love me and be my parents. You can't send me back there. It's awful there."

"Sweetheart, I wish you were old enough to understand, but we just can't look after you anymore," the man says. "Don't worry. I'm sure some other nice couple will adopt you."

"No," the young Emma cries. "No, I don't want to go back."

She runs out of the room crying and Snow slumps to the ground, sobbing. James is frozen, seeing the look of pain on his daughter's face.

The scene shifts and they find themselves standing in a room with other children. Emma walks into the room, her eyes red-rimmed from crying.

"Oh, look Emma's back," one of the kids taunts. "What's wrong? Your new parents saw what a loser you were?"

Emma just cries harder.

"Crybaby Emma," a girl says. "No one will ever love you."

"That's not true," Emma says. "My real parents loved me. I know it."

"If you real parents loved you, then why are you here?" the girl asks.

"I don't know," Emma says. "I remember something happened to them and they had to give me up, but they were sad to do it."

"Yeah right," the girl says. "That's just a fantasy you had. Give it up. There's no such thing as fairy tales, your real parents hated you. The sooner you accept that, the better."

"You're wrong and I'll prove it," Emma says.

The scene shifts repeatedly, showing Emma struggling to learn to read. Snow and James watch with pride as she learns to read faster than any of the other kids, but Snow's pride quickly fades when she realizes what's coming next.

Sure enough, the scene soon shifts to Emma sneaking into an office. She breaks into the records and quickly locates her file.

"Let's see here," Emma says, opening her file. "Emma Swan, found abandoned by the side of the road. Parents unknown. Wanted on charges of child abandonment."

Emma's face immediately turns to one of complete hopelessness. "Nancy was right, my parents really didn't want me," she says, tears filling her eyes. "I am unloved. There is no such thing as fairy tales or happy endings."

Snow sinks to the ground sobbing, once again.

"Emma, it's not true," James says, knowing she can't hear him, but still needing to try. "We loved you so much we gave you up to keep you safe."

The scene then shifts again to a group of a hundred children standing in front of a grim-faced woman.

"I am sorry to say the state budget has been cut," the woman says. "This orphanage has to close immediately."

"But what will happen to us?" one of the girls asks.

"You'll all be put in temporary foster homes," the woman says. "I'm so sorry."

"Foster homes," a seven year-old Emma says in horror, "but I heard from other kids that they're really awful."

"I'm sorry," the woman says again. "I tried everything I could think of, but the state wouldn't budge."

The scene shifts again to a picture of an older Emma in a messy looking kitchen. She is cooking something on the stove when a drunken man comes in.

"Emma is my dinner ready yet?" the man asks, barely able to stand.

"Yeah, it's ready," Emma answers. She brings him his dinner, but he passes out before she gets to the table.

Emma looks at him in disgust before going to the cabinet and taking out a single cupcake. "Happy birthday Emma," she says sadly.

The scene begins to shift again, but Snow shouts out before it can finish. "Enough! I can't take anymore," she cries.

The area around them immediately turns white and Rumplestiltskin appears before them.

"So have you decided to accept my deal?" he asks.

"Yes," Snow says sadly. "I can't stand knowing my daughter had such an awful life."

"Excellent," Rumplestiltskin says and then waves his hand, causing the three of them to disappear.


	16. Plans

AUTHOR'S NOTE: If you may remember, I mentioned earlier in the story Olivia Dunham of the show _Fringe_ was friends with Emma Swan. At the time I had no plans to have it as anything other than a minor part of Emma's back-story, but now I have an idea for a cross-over fanfic which will run parallel to this one, where the Fringe team investigates the barrier appearing around Storybrooke, but I'm not sure how many people reading this story also watch _Fringe_. Let me know if you're interested in it.

"You can't be serious," Prince Thomas says upon hearing the Blue Fairy's plan.

"I'm very serious," the Blue Fairy responds. "It's the only way."

"I think it's a bad idea," Jiminy interjects.

"I agree with Jiminy," Zeke adds. "Rejoining the part of her soul that is evil with the docile woman before us is just plain nuts."

"I'd have to agree," Regina says. "I don't want to go back to being that hateful woman again."

"We have no choice," the Blue Fairy says. "The evil that was inside you is now running loose with no consciousness and without the inner goodness in your heart. That is what is causing all these portals and monsters to appear and it is getting stronger. Soon hundreds of those portals will appear, releasing thousands of monstrous creatures. You must rejoin with it."

"But what's to stop her from trying to kill all of us once she has her power back?" Thomas asks.

"The evil power she gained is a curse and all curses can be broken with the power of true love," the Blue Fairy explains.

"But my true love is dead," Regina says.

"Romantic love isn't the only kind of love there is," the Blue Fairy points out. "There is also love between friends and love between a parent and a child. Do you truly love your son, Henry?"

"Of course," Regina answers automatically.

"Then you must focus on that," the Blue Fairy says. "When Henry first came to Storybrooke the evil within you was quelled somewhat. It was only when Henry started to rebel against you that it managed to gain hold of you again, but now he believes in you once more. It won't be easy, but you must focus on your love for Henry."

"All right," Regina agrees, after thinking it over for a minute. "What do we do?"

"We must go back to where the power was separated from your body," the Blue Fairy replies.

"The site of the explosion?" Jiminy asks.

"Correct," the Blue Fairy says.

"Well then let's go," Thomas suggests. "The sooner we get this over with, the sooner we can get home."

* * *

><p>Meanwhile, the Huntsman was in the Forbidden Realm tracking Emma's trail through a large underground cavern. After the wolf led him to his heart, he regained his memories and broke free of the spell the Queen had put on him after he refused to kill Snow White. He then managed to find a portal to this realm and pick-up Emma's trail. It was slow going, though. Someone had expertly hidden the trail and if he wasn't an expert tracker, he was certain he would never have found it, but it was frustrating and he was extremely worried. From what he was able to determine Emma and Henry were with a group of over fifty people. The only relief he felt came from the fact that he didn't find evidence of any trolls in the group, so he could only assume she was with friendly folks.<p>

He feels he is getting close, when his friend Wolf growls.

Graham quickly looks up to see two guards with swords closing in on him.

"The Huntsman," one of the guards says. "The Queen has found us!"

"No wait," the Huntsman quickly explains. "I'm not working for the Queen anymore."

He raises his hands in surrender and the guards quickly restrain him. Wolf growls and moves to attack the guards.

"No, Wolf," the Huntsman says. Wolf reluctantly backs off.

"We should kill him now," one of the guards says.

"No. Queen Snow once told me that he saved her life and was then enslaved by the Evil Queen," the other guard says. "There's a chance he's telling the truth and he broke free of her spell."

"Hmm," the first guard says, "I know we'll take you to our princess. She'll be able to determine if you're telling the truth."

"Princess?" the Huntsman asks in confusion.

"Follow me," the first guard says, "and keep your wolf under control or else."

"Right," the Huntsman agrees. "It's okay boy, don't hurt them."

The guards lead them farther into the cavern.

* * *

><p>"Is Alexandra all right?" Doc asks as he continues to distribute walkie-talkies to the guards.<p>

"She's fine," Ella says. "It's just past her feeding time."

"After we finish handing these out, we'll head to the nursery and get some formula," Doc says. "Or are you breast-feeding her?"

"I'm breast-feeding," Ella answers. "I just need somewhere private to feed her for a few minutes."

"Well we're almost done distributing walkie-talkies to all the teams we've assigned to defense," Doc says. "Once we're done, we'll be able to determine if any creatures appear in the hospital."

"This is Red," Red's voice comes over the walkie-talkie. "Come in."

"This is Ella, I read you," Ella says.

"We've just located a bunch of fairies and a few wizards holed up in the library," Red says. "They said they put a magical shield over the building that has prevented any portals from appearing inside it. They're not sure, but they think that if they pool all their power, they'll be able to protect the hospital."

"That's good," Ella says.

"One problem though," Red says. "Will everyone in town, be able to fit in the hospital?"

"I'm not sure," Ella says. "I think if we use every available space, we might be able to fit everyone in, but if the barrier doesn't hold it will be a slaughter house."

"This is Thomas," Thomas' voice comes over the walkie-talkie. "We may not need the barrier. The Blue Fairy has a plan that will close all the portals and transport us back to our own world."

"That's great!" Red says.

"Yeah," Thomas mutters unenthusiastically.

"What's wrong?" Ella asks.

"The plan depends largely on Regina," Thomas explains.

"The Evil Queen!" Red, Ella, and Doc exclaim in unison.

"Has the Blue Fairy gone insane?" Abigail's voice demands.

"That's what I asked," Thomas says, "but after listening to her, it seems that it's our only option. If we don't go with it, the entire town will be overrun by creatures in a matter of hours."

"If the Blue Fairy thinks that it's the only way, then, we have to do it," Frederick says his voice barely under control. "I'm in the center of town near where the mayor's house used to be and there are dozens of the portals here."

"Then we have a problem," Thomas tells him. "The Blue Fairy's plan requires us to get to where the mayor's house stood. How many more civilians do you have to evacuate?"

"Not that many," Frederick replies. "The troops I found have done an efficient job of rounding everyone up. Most of the people were gathering for safety already."

"Good," Thomas says. "Once everyone is back, I want to reconvene in Doctor Whale's office for a strategy meeting."

"Right," the others all agree.

* * *

><p>Back in the Forbidden Realm, Emma is in a deep sleep resting from the exertions of the day. She slew a dragon, killed countless trolls, and used magical powers she didn't even knew she had, to force a troll to tell the truth and release a bunch of enslaved prisoners from their magical enchantment. She could safely say she could have slept for a week. What she got was barely four hours.<p>

"Princess Emma, I am sorry to disturb your rest, but our location may have been compromised," Captain Lance says.

Emma awakens instantly. "What is it?" she asks concerned. "Have the trolls found us?"

"We're not sure," Lance says. "We found one of the Queen's spies outside the entrance to our hideout, but he claims he isn't working for the Queen anymore."

"Who is it?" Emma asks.

"The Queen's Huntsman," Lance says.

"The Huntsman?" Emma asks, before it registers. "Graham?"

"You know him?" Lance asks in surprise.

"Yes, he was fighting with me and my parents before we got separated," Emma says.

"So he is on our side?" Lance asks.

"Yes," Emma replies.

"I told you, I'm on your side," Graham's voice says from the next room.

Emma walks in to see Graham blindfolded and tied up while a wolf growls loudly at two guards.

"You can release him," Emma says.

"Of course, your majesty," the guards reply, and immediately untie him and remove the blindfold.

The Huntsman quickly takes in Emma's appearance and gets concerned. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," Emma says. "Which is more than I can say for the dragon and some unfortunate trolls."

"Excuse me, Captain Lance, your majesty," a soldier says running in. "I've just come from the field and the trolls are reorganizing. They're sending in hundreds of reinforcements. They have orders to capture the princess and recapture the escaped prisoners."

"I see," Lance responds. "Have they found the entrance to the caverns, yet?"

"No, not yet," the soldier answers, "but there are so many of them, it's just a matter of time."

"We need to get out of here," Emma says. "We need to find a way out of this world."

"I can help," Huntsman says. "Now that I've seen the portals, I know how to track them. I can locate one and we can all get out of this world."

"Portals?" Lance asks.

"They're a sort of magical gateway connecting this world with the world I came from," Emma explains. "If we get to one, we can reunite with my parents and work on getting back to your original world."

"Very well," Lance says. "Who should we send in the advance group?"

"I think it best if we all go together," the Huntsman says. "From what I've seen the portals don't stay open that long."

"Very well," Lance agrees. "I'll go prepare everyone for departure."

"Wait a second, where's Henry?" Emma asks.

"He's with Pinocchio, exchanging stories of what it was like growing up in the worlds they were born into," Lance reassures her.

"All right," Emma says, as Lance leaves. "So I see you got your memories back," she adds turning to Graham.

"I did," the Huntsman acknowledges.

"So what do I call you now? Huntsman?" Emma asks.

"No," he answers. "That isn't my name. It's the title the Queen gave me when she enslaved me."

"So what is your real name?" Emma asks.

"I don't have one," he replies. "I was raised by wolves. I suppose you can continue to call me Graham. That name has sort of grown on me."

"Graham it is," Emma replies, then notices how quiet Graham has become. "What is it?"

"It's just when you hopped on that dragon, my heart stopped," Graham explains. "When Regina found out I didn't kill Snow White, she cast a spell on me to make me her heartless slave. The whole time I was in Storybrooke, I never felt anything until I met you."

"That's just because I have the power to end the curse," Emma says. "Some of my power must have awakened your heart."

"That was part of it, but the Blue Fairy helped me break free of the curse Regina placed on me and I know what I feel for you," Graham says. "I love you."

Emma is shocked. "Graham, we've only known each other for a couple of weeks," she protests. "That's not long enough to fall in love."

"No, it's not," Graham says. "I've known from the moment I saw you there was something special about you."

"Listen, there's no such thing as love at first sight," Emma objects.

"I know that the world you grew up in doesn't believe in magic or love at first sight, but both are real," Graham says. "I know because of the way you were raised you have trust issues, but I want you to know what I feel for you is real."

"Listen Graham, now is not the best time to discuss this," Emma says. "I promise I'll think about what you said and when things calm down a little, we can talk about this, but for now we have to focus on getting these people to safety."

"Of course," Graham agrees.

At this point Lance comes back in. "Everyone's ready to go."

"They all managed to get ready so fast?" Emma asks in some surprise.

"We're a hunted group," Lance says. "We drill for leaving in a hurry in case of attack."

"I see," Emma says, once again taking in how hard their lives have been. "How are you holding up and how are the rest of the people doing, really? All those years of labor couldn't have been easy for you."

"They weren't," Lance says, "but we really had no sense of how much time had passed while under the spell. Our memories of that time are all a blur. However, since we awakened, everyone has been frightened and convinced they were going to die. That all changed when you showed up. It's only been a few hours, but already everyone has hope, that they'll survive."

Emma's heart catches in her throat again and fear begins to come over her, but she pushes it down. She isn't ready to be the savior of an entire world, but she has no choice. She has hundreds of people here depending on her to get them to safety and untold millions waiting for release from the curse, so she has to get past all her self-doubt and make sure these people get to safety.

"Let's move out," Emma says in her most commanding voice.


	17. Decisions

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I've decided to go ahead with the Fringe crossover fic. I should have the first chapter posted this weekend. I've decided on a plot and how it fits in with the rest of this story. For those of you wondering, Belle and Sydney/the Genie/the Magic Mirror, who have yet to appear in this story at all will be the main Once Upon a Time characters in that fic, with others such as Red Riding Hood, Rumplestiltskin, Emma, Snow, James, and Henry appearing as the situation warrants. Belle and Sydney will appear briefly in the next chapter to set up their appearance in that fic.

A second after disappearing from Emma's childhood memories, Snow and James appear in Mr. Gold's shop in Storybrooke.

"So you're ready to sign?" Rumplestiltskin asks, producing a contract.

"NO!" James shouts, turning to his wife. "Snow you can't do this."

"How can I not?" Snow asks, her voice sounding more broken then he's ever heard it. "My one comfort as the Queen cast her curse on us was my daughter is safe. She'll have the life she deserves, but she didn't. She had the worst childhood imaginable. Growing up believing she was unloved, with no hope for the future. I can't live with that."

James is at a loss for words. What he witnessed of his daughter's life had affected him deeply too.

"He can't be trusted," James says quietly. "Think of every deal he's ever done. I know Emma had a rough childhood and I would have given my life to prevent her from having a day of that misery, but he's not to be trusted. We could end up making Emma's life even worse. We can't give him the ability to alter the past."

"A noble sentiment, but you're forgetting without me you two would never have met," Rumplestiltskin says. "Without me, James would still be a poor farmer and Snow would be locked in eternal sleep. You owe me."

"We owe you nothing," James says angrily. "You're the one who created the curse in the first place. If it wasn't for you, we would never have ended up here."

"No you wouldn't," Rumplestiltskin agrees. "However if I hadn't given the Queen the curse, she would have launched one all-out last desperate attack on you. She would have used all her power in a final attack to kill Emma. Emma would have almost certainly died in the attack or one of you would have sacrificed yourselves to save her, so one of you certainly owes me your life."

"That's a lie," James says.

"I don't lie," Rumplestiltskin says. "That's part of my curse. I can manipulate the truth or leave out certain details, but I can't outright lie. And in your heart, you know the Queen would have done anything to destroy your happiness."

"You may be right about that," Snow says as a thought forms, "but what's to stop us from using the stone and altering history ourselves?"

"Ah, that thought finally occurred to you, dearie," Rumplestiltskin says. "To answer the question, there are two reasons. You lack my power of foresight. I can alter the past and have some idea of what the new future will look like, but you cannot. You could alter it so that Emma never existed or that you died in some battle. The other reason is only a chosen warrior, in this case your daughter, can use it. And she owes me a magical favor, which I can use to ensure that she only uses it for me."

"If you already have a favor from her, what do you need us for?" Snow asks.

"I only have the one favor from her," Rumplestiltskin answers, "and she is the only one who can find the stone. I can't order her to find the stone and bring it to me, without using that favor, and then I wouldn't be able to use the stone."

"So you need us to convince her to find the stone and then you can order her to use it however you want," Snow realizes.

"Correct," Rumplestiltskin answers.

"Snow, listen," James says, "you can't agree to another deal with him. Remember what happened last time."

"I know," Snow says, beginning to waver, "but I just can't stand knowing Emma had such a rough life. Did you see the look on her face as she celebrated her birthday?"

"I did," James says sadly.

To tell the truth, he was just as heartbroken as Snow. If he didn't know what trickery Rumplestiltskin was capable of, he may have considered the deal, but he knew all too well the consequences of making deals with that monster. It was accepting a deal with him that ultimately led to his mother's death. However, he couldn't really blame Rumplestiltskin, since King George had ordered her killed.

"I just don't know what to do," Snow whispers. "I wish I had some kind of sign, to tell me what was right."

As she says this, both James and Rumplestiltskin stop moving.

"James," Snow says in concern. "James, what's wrong?"

Snow tries shaking him, but he remains frozen in place. She turns to Rumplestiltskin, thinking this may be his doing, but whatever froze James has frozen him too.

"What's going on?" Snow asks. "Who caused this?"

"You did," her daughter's voice says, "with your wish."

Snow turns around to find her daughter standing behind her. However, upon seeing her, her jaw drops in shock.

* * *

><p>"I can see the portal," Emma says, looking through a pair of binoculars Pinocchio made. "It's about half a mile away."<p>

"Yes, but the route to it is through an open plain," Lance says. "We'd be completely exposed to attack."

"Sir," a scout calls, "the trolls have found our old camp. Dozens of patrols are converging on our location. They'll be here in fifteen minutes."

"Pinocchio, did you set the traps?" Lance asks.

"Yes," Pinocchio answers. "However, it will only slow them down. It will buy us at most another half-hour, maybe less."

"Do you think we can make the portal in that amount of time?" Emma asks, concerned.

"We have no choice," Lance says. "We must attempt it."

"I agree," Emma says. "If necessary, your soldiers and I will have to fight the trolls to buy time for the civilians to escape."

"I don't particularly like this plan," Graham says. "It feels like we're painting a target on our backs."

"If you have a better idea, I'd love to hear it," Emma says, but Graham remains silent. "Let's get moving then, every second counts."

* * *

><p>At the hospital, the group of fairy tale kingdom leaders had reconvened in Doctor Whale's office.<p>

"What's our status?" Prince Thomas asks.

"We've managed to locate most of the citizens of the town," Frederick reports. "However we're still missing about two hundred people including Gepetto, Grumpy, and all the mer-people."

"The mer-people!" Ella exclaims. "If they regained their memories, they could be in serious trouble! They can't survive on land."

"I'll send out another search party at once," Frederick says.

"No need," Dopey says, running in and then tripping. "Ariel, Eric, and Nova are escorting the mer-people to the marina."

"Well that's a relief," Abigail says.

"We're still missing nearly a hundred people," Red says. "They could be in trouble."

"They could also be anywhere," Zeke points out. "We don't have the time or resources to search every building in town."

"I have to agree with Zeke," Thomas says, and then shudders. "There's something I never thought I'd hear myself say."

"We need to break the curse," Jiminy says. "We have to get Regina to the remains of her house. It's the only way to end this madness."

"I'm still not sold on the idea of giving Regina her powers back," Red says.

"I have concerns about it too, but we have no choice," Thomas says.

"So we have to decide who's going to escort her to her house," Ella says.

"Count me out," Zeke says. "I'm not risking my life for her."

"Zeke," Red growls threateningly.

"In this case, I'd have to agree," Doc says. "We have a lot of injuries and he may still retain enough medical knowledge to help out."

"Yes," Zeke says. "I still have my medical skills."

"Very well," Thomas says. "You and Doc get started on that."

"I recommend that Prince Thomas, Frederick, Abigail, Red, Jiminy, and a couple of soldiers accompany me to the remnants of the house," the Blue Fairy says. "I can then reunite Regina with her dark side, and hopefully Jiminy can help Regina's light side stay in control, so she can break the curse."

"Sounds like a plan," Thomas says. "Ella you'll be in command here. We now have a magical barrier that should prevent any more portals from appearing, but we'll need you to rally the troops in case it fails."

"All right," Ella says, kissing her husband. "Just be careful."

"I will," Thomas promises.

* * *

><p>Meanwhile at Storybrooke's marina, other residents of the small town were having serious problems. Grumpy and Gepetto, whose memories had also returned, had followed a frantic Nova to find Ariel and Eric working desperately to keep her family alive. The mer-people were among the last citizens of the town to have their memories returned, and once they did return, Nova, Ariel, and Eric had quickly commandeered three school buses and made a desperate attempt to get the hundred or so mer-people in the town to the water.<p>

However, upon getting there, they had discovered a rather serious problem. Hundreds of monstrous creatures from the Forbidden Realm now filled the bay. Fortunately, it appeared the creatures couldn't come out on land. Unfortunately, this meant they couldn't put the mer-people into the water. At this point, the mer-people were in very bad shape, since they could only stay out of water for an hour and it already been nearly forty minutes.

So Nova found Gepetto and Grumpy, who along with Eric and Ariel, were now attempting to build a hastily constructed trench big enough for a hundred people that they could fill with water.

"We're not going to make it," Grumpy says, as he continues to dig feverously.

"Yes we are," Nova says. "You just have to have faith, Dreamy."

"My name is Grumpy," he replies. "It has been since the last night I saw you."

"Dreamy..." Nova begins.

"Can you settle this later?" Gepetto asks. "We need to think of something else."

"I don't know what else we can do," Eric says. "There's no way we can finish this before the mer-people die."

"We need a miracle," Ariel says.

Suddenly, another glowing portal appears before them and unlike the others, which are underwater, this one leads onto land, implying that whatever comes out of this one will be able to breathe air.

"No!" Ariel cries in horror.

"Ariel, run," the leader of the mer-people says. "Save yourself."

"I won't leave you father," Ariel says looking around for a weapon.

It was at this point, that arrows began to emerge from the portal.

"Father," Ariel says, turning to her father in defeat. "I'm sorry."

* * *

><p>Commander Kajsa of the glorious troll nation was not having a good day. She was the commander of all operations in the Forbidden Realm. For all its promised riches, being the commander in this realm was boring. Nothing really interesting had happened in over twenty-eight years, until just over four months ago when a little human brat finally found a magical artifact.<p>

Unfortunately, this artifact freed the human slaves from their spell of imprisonment and they immediately turned on their captors, killing several trolls in the process. Since then, they resisted all efforts to recapture them and continued to kill trolls and sabotage their operations. Although there really wasn't much to sabotage since they had only found the one artifact in all their time here.

Then the Chosen One had arrived in the realm, the one that was destined to either give their Lord ultimate victory or bring an end to the Troll Empire. They had nearly captured her, but then those traitorous trolls, who believed they should remain hidden underground, had appeared and allowed her to escape. After that, she had joined the resistance and freed another large group of prisoners.

When Commander Kajsa informed the Emperor of this, he was livid. He sent his personal mage, the most powerful of all troll mages, to help track them down. He informed her in no uncertain terms that if she failed to capture the Chosen One by the end of the day, he would demote her back to foot soldier on the front lines of the war between their unenlightened relatives.

It would be a punishment she deserved. If the Chosen One succeeded in her task, the whole Troll Empire would collapse, leaving them nowhere to go. They would not retreat underground again, even if the trolls who never left the places would allow them in, which was doubtful.

With the mage's help, they managed to find the humans' hideout, but they had already abandoned it. The scouts reported they were now heading for a portal back to the realm they called Storybrooke. That concerned her greatly, for from reports coming in, the curse was already weakening in that realm. If the Chosen One had mastered her powers, which Kajsa must assume she had from reports of how she freed the prisoners, then she would break the curse completely, which would be the first step in the fall of the Troll Empire.

She immediately ordered all troops in the general vicinity to stop what they were doing and converge on the humans' location. She ordered them to kill all the humans except the Chosen One and her son on sight. She must have the Chosen One and she needed a bargaining chip to ensure her cooperation.

The only question now was whether they would reach the Chosen One before she reached the portal and escaped to the other world.


	18. The Path Home1

AUTHOR'S NOTE: This chapter marks the first chapter of the two-part end of the first arc of the story. The characters' time in Storybrooke is coming to the end, but the story is far from over. They'll have new challenges to face upon returning to the Enchanted Forest. Also as a reminder, please check out my Fringe-Once Upon A Time Crossover Fic, which is a companion to this one.

The group of resistance fighters and escaped prisoners were about a ten-minute walk from the portal when the rear guard saw the trolls emerging from an underground entrance.

"The trolls are coming," the scout yells.

Everyone turns back to see hundreds of trolls emerge from the cave. Upon seeing them, all the civilians drop their few possessions and start running full out for the portal.

"We'll have to fight them," Emma says.

"We only have thirty trained soldiers," Lance says. "That's nowhere near enough to win the battle."

"We don't have to win the battle we just have to hold them off long enough to allow the civilians to escape through the portal," Emma replies.

"And what's to stop the trolls from following them through the gateway?" the scout asks.

"I have some kind of magical powers," Emma says. "I don't fully understand how they work, but I did manage to free the slaves from their enchantment. I hope that I may have the power to close the portal behind me."

"I agree with Emma on this," Graham says. "We have no choice."

As they plan, the trolls advance.

"Do we have any bows and arrows?" Emma asks.

"Yes, we have enough bows and arrows for all our troops," Lance answers.

"Good," Emma says. "Who's your second-in-command?"

"That would be me," a man says. "Corporal Zell."

"Corporal, you're in charge of making sure the civilians get through the portal," Emma says. "Make sure my son, Pinocchio, and all the other children are first."

"But mom, I want to see you fight," Henry protests.

"I want to fight too," Pinocchio adds.

"Henry, I don't have a lot of time," Emma says gently. "I won't be able to concentrate properly knowing you're in danger."

"But what if you die?" Henry asks, afraid.

"I'm not going to die," Emma says in her most reassuring voice. "I'm the Chosen One, remember? Who killed that dragon?"

"Right," Henry says, his fear vanishing.

"Take them now," Emma orders as the trolls near their position. "Archers, draw your arrows and prepare to fire."

Corporal Zell immediately takes the two children and heads for the portal while Emma gets a bow and turns to Graham.

"Are you sure you want to stay with us?" Emma asks.

"I am," Graham says. "For so long, I was enslaved by the Queen and before that I was a wanderer, never having a home. But since meeting you, I finally feel like I belong somewhere."

Emma is not sure how to respond to this, so she just nods and turns back to the trolls. "Fire," she commands.

At her command, all the archers fire, most of the arrows hit their mark, causing twenty-six trolls to fall to the ground, either injured or dead. The trolls respond by having their archers fire back. A few hit their mark, killing two soldiers and injuring three others.

Emma is hit hard as she realizes soldiers under her command have been killed. She isn't used to being responsible for anyone but herself, and now she is leading a group of soldiers into battle. She looks around desperately for some option, but saw no cover. She could see no choice but to hold their ground, and buy time for her people to escape.

* * *

><p>Snow looks at her daughter in shock. Emma is in a gown that she recognizes as the work of Abigail, her royal seamstress. Her make-up is expertly done, making her look even more beautiful than she normally does. She also has an expression of contentment and happiness that Snow has never seen on her daughter in the brief time since they were reunited, but what really caught her attention was Emma's stomach. She was eight months pregnant.<p>

"Emma, you're pregnant," Snow blurts out.

"Way to state the obvious," Emma says smiling at her mother's bewildered expression.

"But how?" Snow asks.

"I'm from the future," Emma answers. "Your wish allowed me to project my image here, but I don't have long."

"My wish?" Snow asks. "You mean about what to do about Rumplestiltskin's offer?"

"Yes," Emma says. "You cannot accept his offer. To do so would invite disaster."

"But Emma, he showed me your childhood," Snow says. "It was horrible."

Emma shudders. "Yes it was," she says. "But it was necessary. It helped me become who I am. It gave me strength for the trials I had to face after returning to the world of my birth."

"Trials upon returning home?" Snow asks in confusion. "What trials?"

"I can't say much about it it's something that's going to happen very soon," Emma says sadly. "But I want you to know that you will be an excellent mother to me. I know it will always sadden you that I never had a proper childhood, but you will make sure the rest of my life is happy." Emma begins to fade. "My time is almost up," she says. "I have to go. Now you need to get to the marina. You'll be needed there."

"Wait," Snow says. "I have so many questions for you! Who's the father of your child?"

"Spoilers," Emma says, with a mysterious smile as she disappears.

As soon as she vanishes, James and Rumplestiltskin begin moving again. Rumplestiltskin quickly looks around, having sensed the build-up of power around him. Something happened the second Snow White said she wished she knew what to do, invoking some kind of magic.

"What magic was that?" he asks. "What just happened?"

"No deal," Snow says.

"What happened when you made your wish?" Rumplestiltskin asks again.

"I received information on what would happen if I made a deal with you," Snow says. "I won't ever make that mistake again."

"Well then I'll just have to go to Plan B," Rumplestiltskin says, and disappears.

"Snow, what happened?" James asks.

"I'll tell you later," Snow says. "Right now, we need to get to the marina."

* * *

><p>Elsewhere, in a hidden room built under the hospital, Belle is sitting in her cell reflecting as she has for the past twenty-eight years. She doesn't know how long she's been here only that it seems like forever. She remembers the day she found out she was pregnant with Rumplestiltskin's child. When her father discovered it, he said Rumplestiltskin had cursed her and called nuns to lock her up in a tower. She wasn't there for long when the woman she met on the road showed up. 'The Queen' she remembered Rumplestiltskin telling her that was who the woman was.<p>

"What do you want?" Belle had asked.

"What I want is you, my dear," the Queen had replied. "You are going to be my chance to destroy Rumplestiltskin once and for all."

"I won't help you," Belle had said defiantly.

"Such loyalty," she had laughed, "but tragically misplaced. I'm afraid. Rumplestiltskin doesn't care for you or the child. I'm going to lock you away where he can never find you."

After that, the Queen had Belle locked away in a special cell in her castle that prevented anyone from magically sensing her. A few months later, the Queen cast her curse and transported them all to this new world. The Queen implanted new memories in Belle that would enable the Queen to control her.

However, the Queen made a fatal mistake in her plan. The magical protections she put on the cell to prevent people from sensing Belle, also protected her from the Queen's curse. She was able to retain memories of her original life.

This enraged the Queen, so she built another special magic-proof cell under the hospital and that was where Belle remained for twenty-eight years. Nothing much happened to her in all that time. The Queen would make occasional visits to try to get Belle to change her mind about joining her side, which she always refused to do.

Then, a few weeks ago, something changed. She noticed the baby starting to grow again, and the visits by the Queen grew more frequent. She knew something was going on in the outside world, but didn't know what. Then today, she started hearing screams from the upper floors of the hospital. She was starting to grow worried, something was happening and she had no idea what. She just had to hope someone would find her, but considering she had been hoping the same thing for over twenty-eight years, she didn't think there was much chance of that.

* * *

><p>"I'm sorry father," Ariel says as the first arrows fly through the portal. She knows there is no way now to save her people. They are going to die. She grabs the shovel she was using to dig the trench to use as a weapon against whatever creature comes through the portal.<p>

It shocks her that what emerges from the portal is not hideous creatures, but several dozen children followed by a soldier carrying a sword and a stream of people dressed in shabby clothes. The group immediately clears away from the portal as arrows continue to emerge behind them, barely missing them.

"What's going on?" Gepetto asks in amazement.

"Dad," Pinocchio exclaims, running to his father.

"My boy," Gepetto says, embracing his son. "Where did you come from?"

"We came from the Forbidden Realm," Pinocchio says. "Princess Emma rescued us."

"Emma!" Gepetto exclaims, for the first time realizing that their new deputy was in fact Snow White and King James' daughter. "Where is she?"

"She's fighting the trolls on the other side of the portal," a worried Henry says.

At that very moment on the other side of the portal, Emma was fighting with Captain Lance and his troops, and their side was not doing well. They had abandoned their bows and arrows as the trolls reached their position, drawing their swords to try to keep the trolls from getting to the portal.

"Capture the Chosen One," Commander Kajsa shouts.

The trolls all focus their attacks on Emma. Together they manage to knock her sword out of her hand, and one overeager troll, forgetting they were supposed to capture her alive, goes in for the kill. Graham, seeing this, quickly knocks Emma out of the way of the attack. Time slows down for Emma as she sees the troll's sword, preparing to behead the captain. She looks around for her weapon and sees her sword embedded in a nearby rock. She quickly dives for it, pulls it out of the rock, and deflects the troll's attack just in time.

A golden glow envelops her and she looks down to see that lightweight steel armor has replaced her torn clothes. She looks at the sword and realizes it isn't hers. She reads the hilt and it says 'Excalibur' on it.

"You've got to be kidding me," Emma mutters in disbelief. However, the trolls regroup against her, cutting her thoughts short. The sword seems to alleviate her fatigue, so she quickly dives back into battle, killing three of the trolls easily.

"All the civilians are through the portal," one of the soldiers shouts.

"Everyone, fall back through the portal," Lance orders.

Emma swings her sword in a wide arc, causing the trolls to fall back a few feet and then dashes for the portal with the trolls right behind her.

When she reaches it, she sees everyone but Graham and Lance have gone through. "Go!" she shouts.

The three of them dive through at the same time.

"Portal, I command you to close!" Emma shouts.

The portal immediately closes, just before the trolls can get through.

"Is everyone okay?" Emma asks.

"We are fine, Princess," Corporal Zell says.

"Emma," Gepetto says, hugging the princess. "I am so glad you are safe. It was I who created the magical wardrobe which carried you..."

"We don't have time for this," Ariel says. "My people are dying. We need to finish this trench and fill it with water."

Emma quickly turns to see the hundred or so mer-people in bad shape.

"Okay everyone, grab a shovel and start digging," Emma commands.

Emma quickly grabs a shovel, followed by the soldiers and nearly a hundred adults. Why the marina had so many shovels was a mystery, but Emma wasn't about to question it. Working together, the group manages to complete the trench and fill it with water in about ten minutes. They then quickly help the mer-people into it before any of them die.

"Thank you," Ariel says.

"No problem," Emma responds. "Now we have to determine what to do next."

At this point, Snow and James come rushing up to the group.

"Emma, you're okay," Snow says in relief, rushing to hug her daughter. Despite the vision she had of her future daughter earlier, it was still a relief to hold her in the flesh once again. Her father was right behind Snow, joining in the embrace.

After a minute, the three break apart and Snow and James look at the group before them.

"Gepetto, Grumpy, Pinocchio, Ariel, Prince Eric, Nova, Captain Lance," Snow greets her long absent friends, "it's good to see you again."

"What happened to you after you dived into that portal?" James asks. "And where'd you get that armor?"

"It's a long story," Emma says.

Her father then examines the sword Emma is carrying and his jaw drops in astonishment. "Is that Excalibur?" James asks in complete disbelief.

"Like I said a long story," Emma says. She is preparing to tell her story when black storm clouds cover the sky of the town, which had been purple since the force field appeared. Then the wind starts blowing heavily and lightning flashes. "Now what?" she asks in frustration as the group turns to the sky in apprehension.


End file.
